THE  TRUTH  OF 
THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 


Translated  by 


CHARLES  E,  HAY,  D.D, 


unr 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 

GIFT  OB 
Knight,  Dunlap 


NOT  TO  BE  TAKEN  FROM  THE  ROOM 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE 
APOSTLES'  CREED 


An  Exposition  by  Twelve  Theologians 
of  Germany 


EDITED  BY  WILLIAM  LAIBLE,  D.D. 
TRANSLATED  BY  CHARLES  E.  HAY,  D.D. 


PHILADELPHIA,  PA. 

THE  LUTHERAN  PUBLICATION  SOCIETY 


COPYRIGHT,  1916,  BY 
THE    LUTHERAN    PUBLICATION    SOCIETY 


TRANSLATOR'S  PREFACE 

Every  assault  upon  the  truth  in  the  history  of  the 
Church  has  hitherto  been  overruled  for  its  firmer  estab- 
lishment in  the  minds  of  men.  The  recent  determined 
opposition  to  some  portions  of  the  Apostles'  Creed  in 
Germany  has  already  furnished  a  further  illustration  of 
this  historical  phenomenon.  The  Church  does  wisely  in 
gathering  the  results  of  every  conflict  and  preserving 
them  among  her  treasures.  We  in  America  have  reason 
to  rejoice  in  our  freedom  from  many  perplexities  arising 
from  the  too  intimate  connection  of  Church  and  state. 
As  the  discussion  of  the  Creed,  in  consequence,  does  not 
assume  for  us  a  legal  aspect,  we  are  in  position  to  con- 
sider it  simply  upon  its  merits.  Our  danger  is  that  we 
may,  in  the  absence  of  direct  opposition,  fail  to  appre- 
ciate this  form  of  sound  words  as  we  should.  The  same 
influences  which  in  other  lands  give  rise  to  questions  of 
ecclesiastical  order  are  only  too  actively  at  work  among 
us  in  seeking  insidiously  to  undermine  the  faith  of  our 
people  in  the  old  doctrines  centering  in  the  person  and 
work  of  Christ  as  the  divine  Redeemer.  It  is  most 
fortunate  for  us  that  the  more  open  conflict  there  has 
called  forth  many  notable  defences — among  them  the 
remarkable  series  of  articles  here  presented.  The  circula- 
tion of  this  little  volume  should  not  only  serve  to  confirm 
many  in  the  faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints,  but  should 
enable  them  with  clearer  vision  of  the  truth  and  with 
more  fervor  to  unite  with  the  saints  of  all  ages  in  con- 
fessing that  faith  in  the  noble  language  of  the  Apostles' 

Creed-  CHARLES  E.  HAY. 

iii 

"  >r> 


FOREWORD 

In  the  summer  of  A.D.  1913,  the  editor  of  the 
Allgemeine  Evangelisch-Lutherische  Kirchenseitung,  ad- 
dressed the  following  circular  letter  to  twelve  well-known 
theologians : 

"The  attacks  upon  the  Apostles'  Creed,  the  oldest  con- 
fession of  the  Church,  which  still  forms  a  bond  of  union 
for  us  even  with  Roman  Catholic  believers,  have  assumed 
so  general  and  serious  a  character  that  great  uneasiness 
has  been  occasioned  in  wide  circles.  There  has  been 
an  impression  that  no  scientific  theologian  could  longer 
be  found  who  would  be  willing  or  able  to  take  a  serious 
stand  in  its  defence.  These  ideas  are  promulgated  in 
our  schools  and  universities,  and  earnest  efforts  are  al- 
ready being  made  to  crowd  it  out  of  our  church  services, 
and  thus  out  of  the  life  of  the  Church  at  large.  It  is 
needless  to  say  that  a  deadly  blow  would  thus  be  struck 
at  the  very  heart  of  our  Christian  populace.  In  this 
whole  controversy  we  have  to  do,  not  with  the  form  of 
the  Creed,  which,  being  human  in  origin,  may  always  be 
open  to  discussion,  but  with  the  fundamental  statements 
of  faith  here  proclaimed,  which  many  are  unwilling  longer 
to  hear,  teach  or  confess.  As  certainly  as  it  is  the  pur- 
pose of  the  Lord  to  preserve  His  people  true  to  His  word 
and  to  the  faith  founded  upon  it,  is  it  our  duty  to  ward 
off  this  assault, — the  duty  of  the  strong  to  succor  the 
weak;  of  the  chosen  witnesses  to  testify;  of  the  leaders 
to  guide  with  clear  and  ringing  utterances.  It  requires 
no  argument  to  prove  that  the  chief  responsibility  here 


vi  FOREWORD 

rests  upon  the  representatives  of  our  scientific  theology. 
All  eyes  are  turned  upon  them  from  every  side;  their 
voices  will  be  heard  above  all  others;  their  testimony 
can  and  will  again  dispel  the  false  impression  that  the 
Creed  has  become  scientifically  untenable.  The  world 
must  be  led  to  realize  that  the  Church  still  has  a  theol- 
ogy which  believes  the  Creed  and  is  ready  to  confess  its 
faith;  and  the  membership  of  the  Church,  with  its  pas- 
tors and  teachers,  must  also  realize  this  and  thus  be 
filled  with  new  and  joyous  confidence. 

"I  have,  therefore,  encouraged  by  the  unexpectedly 
favorable  experiences  of  the  most  recent  years,  and 
after  most  cheering  conferences  with  theologians,  made 
bold  to  approach  a  somewhat  extended  circle  of  our  lead- 
ing men  and  theologians  with  the  request  that  they 
come  to  the  help  of  the  Church  in  the  present  emergency 
and  employ  the  high  talents  which  God  has  bestowed 
upon  them  in  defence  of  the  sacred  ancient  confession." 

The  response  to  this  circular  was  the  preparation  of 
twelve  articles,  which  were  published  in  the  Kirchen- 
zeitung  toward  the  close  of  the  year  1913  and  in  the  early 
part  of  1914.  They  attracted  such  widespread  attention 
and  were  received  with  such  profound  gratitude  that 
there  was  a  general  desire  to  have  them  all  published 
together.  This  has  now  been  done,  and  the  volume  is 
herewith  offered  to  the  public,  including  a  valuable  histori- 
cal introduction  by  Dr.  Bonwetsch,  which  also  appeared 
in  the  above-named  periodical. 

The  book  is  thus  a  gift  of  theology  to  the  Church — a 
gift  of  permanent  value,  inasmuch  as  it  is  evident  that  the 
conflict  centering  around  the  Creed  will  not  be  so  quickly 
ended,  and  there  will  be  abundant  occasion  to  make  use 
of  these  weapons  from  the  arsenal  of  theology.  It  will, 
at  the  same  time,  constitute  an  enduring  historical  testi- 


FOREWORD  vu 

mony  that,  in  these  days  of  strenuous  assaults  upon  the 
faith,  the  Church  possessed  a  theology  which  stood  loy- 
ally by  her  and  could  do  so  with  entire  scientific  conscien- 
tiousness. 

The  book  has  been  written  and  is  published  for  the 
glory  of  God.  May  His  blessing  accompany  it  as  it  goes 
forth  upon  its  mission  to  edify  and  establish  His  people 
in  the  faith. 

THE  EDITOR. 

LEIPSIC,  July,   1914. 


CONTENTS 


PACK 

CHAPTER  I 
WHAT  is  THE  CREED  TO  Us?..  II 


CHAPTER  II 
I  BELIEVE  IN  GOD,  THE  ALMIGHTY  FATHER 29 

CHAPTER  III 
MAKER  OF  HEAVEN  AND  EARTH 41 

CHAPTER  IV 

I  BELIEVE  IN  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  ONLY-BEGOTTEN  SON  OF  GOD, 
OUR  LORD 55 

CHAPTER  V 
CONCEIVED  BY  THE  HOLY  GHOST,  BORN  OF  THE  VIRGIN  MARY.  .     70 

CHAPTER  VI 

SUFFERED  UNDER  PONTIUS  PILATE,  CRUCIFIED,  DEAD,  BURIED, 
DESCENDED  INTO  HELL 86 

CHAPTER  VII 
ON  THE  THIRD  DAY  HE  ROSE  AGAIN  FROM  THE  DEAD 97 

CHAPTER  VIII 

HE  ASCENDED  INTO  HEAVEN,   AND   SITTETH   ON  THE   RIGHT 
HAND  OF  GOD,  THE  FATHER  ALMIGHTY in 

ix 


CONTENTS  x 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  IX 

FROM  THENCE  HE  SHALL  COME  TO  JUDGE  THE  QUICK  AND 
THE  DEAD 122 

CHAPTER  X 
I  BELIEVE  IN  THE  HOLY  GHOST 140 

CHAPTER  XI 
A  HOLY  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH,  THE  COMMUNION  OF  SAINTS 163 

CHAPTER  XII 
THE  FORGIVENESS  OF  SINS '. .  185 

CHAPTER  XIII 
RESURRECTION  OF  THE  FLESH  AND  A  LIFE  EVERLASTING..        .  208 


The  Truth  of  the  Apostles'  Creed 


CHAPTER  I 
What  is  the  Creed  to  Us? 

BY  DR.  N.  BONWETSCH 

PROFESSOR  OF   CHURCH    HISTORY    AT   GOETTINGEN 

What  is  the  Creed  to  us  ?  I  am  well  aware  that  in  at- 
tempting to  answer  this  question  I  can  say  nothing  new. 
But  the  calling  to  mind  of  that  which  we  already  know 
may  promote  clearness  of  judgment.  As  a  church  his- 
torian, I  may  be  permitted  to  direct  attention  particularly 
to  the  history  of  the  Apostles'  Creed,  although  in  doing 
so  I  can  do  no  more  than  report  the  results  of  the  labors 
of  others.  An  appreciation  of  its  history  cannot  be  with- 
out influence  upon  our  attitude  toward  it  in  the  present, 
however  much  the  significance  of  that  history  may  have 
been  obscured  by  our  veneration  for  its  antiquity  and 
our  familiarity  with  it  from  childhood. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  Creed  in  •  its  present  form 
cannot  be  traced  beyond  the  close  of  the  fifth  century. 
But  it  is  equally  well  known  that  it  presents  to  us  a  some- 
what enlarged  form  of  the  same  confession  which  meets 
us  in  a  much  earlier  period  in  the  most  widely  separated 
portions  of  the  Church.  The  confessional  formula  of  the 
Roman  Church  enjoyed  especial  authority.  It  read: 

"I  believe  in  God  the  Father,  the  Almighty,  and  in 

11 


12          THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

Christ  Jesus  His  only-begotten  Son,  our  Lord,  born  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  and  the  Virgin  Mary,  crucified  and  buried 
under  Pontius  Pilate,  on  the  third  day  risen  from  the 
dead,  ascended  to  heaven,  sitting  at  the  right  hand  of  the 
Father,  thence  He  cometh  to  judge  the  living  and  the 
dead;  and  in  (or  'in  the')  Holy  Spirit,  a  holy  Church, 
forgiveness  of  sins,  resurrection  of  the  flesh." 

This  Roman  baptismal  formula  has  been  thought  to  be 
the  root  of  the  related  confessions,  even  of  those  found 
in  the  Orient.  It  may,  upon  the  contrary,  according  to 
my  judgment,  be  positively  affirmed  that  it  originated  in 
the  Orient,  although  the  precise  and  unchangeable  form 
was  not  there  so  strictly  preserved.  Justin  Martyr,  who 
became  a  Christian  at  Ephesus  about  A.D.  130,  com- 
monly adds  to  "Jesus  Christ,"  "crucified  under  Pontius 
Pilate,"  evidently  because  this  has  become  familiar  to 
him  as  a  formula,  and  he  mentions,  as  the  customary 
formula  of  excommunication  among  the  Christians  of 
his  day,  "In  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Crucified 
under  Pontius  Pilate."*  We  find  already  in  Ignatius, 
about  A.D.  110115,  formulas  firmly  established  which 
remind  us  most  strongly  of  this  baptismal  symbol ;  for  ex- 
ample, Smyrna  i  :  "Born  of  the  Virgin,  baptized  by  John, 
under  Pontius  Pilate  and  the  tetrarch  Herod  bound  to  the 
cross  according  to  the  flesh,  in  order  that  He  might  by 
His  resurrection  set  up  a  banner."  Trail.  9:  "Jesus 
Christ,  of  the  tribe  of  David,  truly  born  of  Mary  .  .  . 
truly  persecuted  under  Pontius  Pilate,  truly  crucified  and 
dead  .  .  .  who  (is)  also  truly  risen  from  the  dead."  f 


*  Compare  Th.  Zahn,  "Das  apostolische  Symbolum,"  Erlangen 
and  Leipsic,  1893,  p.  33ff. 

f  Compare  Magn.  u:  "By  His  birth,  sufferings  and  resurrec- 
tion, occurring  under  the  procurator  Pontius  Pilate."  Eph.  18  : 2, 
and  Polycarp,  Phil.  2:  "Who  awakened  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED          13 

That  there  is  no  indication  of  a  Trinitarian  arrangement 
of  the  formulas  from  which  these  words  are  taken  does 
not  cast  any  doubt  upon  their  relation  to  a  baptismal 
formula,  as  there  was  no  occasion  in  the  context  for  such 
an  indication. 

We  cannot  fail  to  recognize  even  in  the  writings  of 
the  New  Testament  references  to  such  a  confession.* 
i  Tim.  6  :  I2ff.  presupposes  a  confession  of  Timothy 
"before  many  witnesses,"  which  confessed  that  which 
Christ  had  already  testified  "before  Pontius  Pilate," 
and  spoke  of  His  second  coming.  2  Tim.  2  : 8  also 
presupposes  a  formula  which  included  the  words, 
"of  the  seed  of  David"  and  "awakened  from  the 
dead" — a  confession  which  was  a  response  to  the 
calling  extended  to  him  "before  many  witnesses." 
(2  Tim.  2:2.)  The  reference  in  2  Tim.  4  :  i  to  Him 
who  "will  come  to  judge  the  living  and  the  dead,"  cannot 
but  remind  us  also  of  the  announcement  made  to  Timothy 
of  the  content  of  the  Christian  proclamation.  This  con- 
fession, therefore,  referred  to  Jesus  Christ  as  well  as  to 
God,  and  confessed  Him  as  "of  the  seed  of  David,"  as  the 
One  who  stood  "before  Pontius  Pilate,"  who  was  "awak- 
ened from  the  dead,"  and  who  will  again  "appear"  "to 
judge  the  living  and  the  dead."  In  i  Cor.  15  13-5,  Paul  re- 
minds his  readers  of  the  content  of  his  preaching :  Christ 
died  for  our  sins,  was  buried  and  rose  again,  and  all 
this  "according  to  the  Scriptures."  The  reference  to  a 
confession  would  become  most  clear  if  in  the  second 
verse,  instead  of  "with  what  word"  I  preached  unto  you, 


from  the  dead  and  gave  Him  glory  and  throne  at  His  right 
hand." 

*  Compare  Zahn,  p.  39!?.,  and  Von  Zezschwitz,  System  der 
Katechetik  II.  i.  80.  Especially,  A.  Seeberg,  Der  Katechismus 
der  Urchristenheit,  Leipsic,  1903. 


14          THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

we  should  translate  with  A.  Seeberg,  "according  to  the 
rule"  of  that  word  which  he  had  preached  to  his  readers. 
But,  in  any  case,  the  words  of  the  apostle  clearly  declare 
that  he  gave  to  his  congregations  what  had  been  already 
received  by  himself,  hence  what  had  been  imparted  to 
him  already  at  his  conversion  to  faith  in  Christ.  He 
could  have  had  occasion  to  express  himself  in  this  way 
only  if  he  had  in  mind  the  handing  down  of  a  formula 
which  had  been  full  of  significance  for  the  entrance  of 
his  readers  into  Christian  fellowship.  Paul  displays 
dependence  upon  existing  formulas  also  when  he  declares 
that  God  sent  His  Son,  born  in  the  house  of  David,  now 
sitting  at  the  right  hand  of  God.  (Gal.  4:4;  Rom.  8:3; 
i  :  3 ;  8  : 34;  Col.  3:1;  Eph.  i  :  20.)  Of  fixed  formulas, 
however,  apart  from  the  baptismal  confession,  we  have 
no  evidence  in  the  apostolic  period.  Even  the  citations 
of  scriptural  testimony  to  Christ,  then  already  taking 
traditional  form,  followed  only  a  certain  outline.  The 
First  Epistle  of  Peter  apparently  avails  itself  of  existing 
formulas  when  it  speaks  of  Christ  as  having  died  for 
sins,  being  exalted  to  the  right  hand  of  God,  and  coming 
to  judge  the  living  and  the  dead.  (3  :  18,  22;  4  :  5.)  I 
refrain  from  entering  upon  the  question  whether  we  are 
not  to  think  of  the  confession  made  at  baptism  when  the 
author  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  exhorts  his  readers, 
as  those  who  have  received  the  purifying  baptism,  to  hold 
fast  to  the  confession.* 

Thus  we  are  able  to  trace  the  beginnings  of  this 
formula  of  confession  back  to  the  original  sources  of 
Christianity.t  The  content  of  the  Creed  corresponds  to 


*In  support  of  this  view,  see,  especially,  A.  Seeberg,  1.  c.,  p. 
I42ff.,  and  "Der  Brief  an  die  Hebraer,"  Leipsic,  1912,  under 
Heb.  3:1;  4  :  14;  10  : 23. 

t  No  doubt  can  be  raised  upon  this  point  by  the  fact  that  it 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED          15 

the  missionary  preaching  of  the  apostolic  period,  as  we 
learn  particularly  from  Luke:  Jesus,  of  the  house  of 
David,  slain  and  awakened  in  fulfillment  of  the  Script- 
ures, revealed  to  the  apostles  as  witnesses,  exalted  to  the 
right  hand  of  God,  and  appointed  to  be  the  Judge  of  liv- 
ing and  dead.  From  the  missionary  activity  and  the 
scriptural  proof  upon  which  it  relied  arose  the  baptismal 
confession — its  starting  point  being  the  confession  of 
allegiance  to  Christ* — and  by  this  was  then  regulated  the 
further  missionary  preaching  and  the  instruction  of  can- 
didates for  reception  to  the  Church.  This  much  may  be 
affirmed,  although  more  precise  details  as  to  the  origin 
of  the  baptismal  symbol  may  remain  clouded  in  mystery. 
That  the  Trinitarian  arrangement  was  also  prevalent  in 
the  apostolic  age  is  evident  from  2  Cor.  13  :  13,  and  from 
the  baptismal  instructions  in  Matt.  28  :  19,  although  it 
was  not  from  this  arrangement  that  the  confession  orig- 
inated. 

In  the  East,  the  baptismal  symbol  did  not  acquire  a 
fixed  and  unalterable  form  to  such  a  degree  as  in  the 
West,  especially  at  Rome.  But  Irenaeus,  about  A.D.  175, 
recognizes  an  identity  of  the  baptismal  confession  in  the 
entire  Christian  Church.  It  is  one,  as  the  sun  is  only 
one.f  Yet  it  existed  in  different  forms,  for  even  in  the 
West,  outside  of  Rome,  the  principle,  "unalterable  and 
subject  to  no  amendment,"  was  not  everywhere  actually 


has  been  pronounced  a  lack  of  proper  carefulness  to  infer  from 
the  present  formulas  the  existence  of  a  formulated  baptismal 
confession  (Harnack,  Prot.  Realenc.  I.  751),  and  we  have  been 
warned  not  to  attempt  to  trace  the  rule  of  faith  back  to  the 
apostolic  age  (Kattenbusch). 

*  In  support  of  this,  see  also  J.  Haussleiter,  "Zur  Vorge- 
schichte  des  apostolischen  Glaubensbekenntnisses,"  Munich,  1893. 

fAdv.  Haer.  I.  10. 


16          THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

observed.  Our  present  Apostles'  Creed  is  an  enlarged 
recension.  The  additions  which  have  been  made  to  it 
have  sprung  from  a  desire  to  explain  it,  and  have  been 
meant  as  elucidations.  Its  home  is  the  Church  of  West- 
ern Europe,*  certainly  not  Rome.  The  occasional  desig- 
nation of  it  in  our  day  as  a  Roman  confession  is  there- 
fore improper.  Its  form  may  be  said  to  have  been  acci- 
dentally assumed.  Among  the  additions  are  to  be  spe- 
cially noted:  "descended  into  hell"  and  "the  communion 
of  saints."  In  neither  case  is  it  known  with  certainty  just 
what  was  the  original  meaning.  The  former,  "descended 
into  the  realm  of  the  dead,"  may  be  best  understood  as  a 
confirmation  of  the  actual  death  of  Jesus,  or  as  indicating 
that  His  redemption  avails  also  for  the  dead  and  for  us 
at  our  death.  It  probably  found  entrance  into  the  present 
Creed  from  the  baptismal  formula  of  the  congregation  at 
Aquileia,  through  the  elucidation  of  that  formula  pub- 
lished by  a  member  of  the  congregation,  Rufinus  (about 
A.D.  400).  It  was  understood  by  Rufinus  himself  as  a 
strengthening  of  the  term  "buried."  Whether  by  the 
"communion  of  saints"  fellowship  with  the  glorified 
saints  above  or  participation  in  the  Church's  means  of 
grace  is  to  be  understood,  must  remain  an  open  question. 
The  character  of  the  original  document  is  not  altered  by 
the  additions.  Zahn  may,  therefore,  not  be  so  far  wrong 
when  he  asserts  (p.  48)  :  The  tradition  according  to 
which  the  apostles,  before  the  beginning  of  their  mission- 
ary journeys,  drew  up  the  symbol  which  has  been  named 
after  them,  contains  more  historical  truth  and  wisdom 


*  Kattenbusch,  "Zur  Wiirdigung  des  Apostolicums,"  Leipsic, 
1892,  p.  1 1 :  "Without  any  doubt,  it  arose  from  a  church 
province  of  western  Europe,  apparently  from  the  kingdom  of 
France,  and,  as  seems  to  me  most  probable,  from  a  German 
diocese  of  that  kingdom." 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED          17 

than  the  view  that  the  Apostles'  Creed  is  a  production 
of  the  fifth  or  sixth  century.  Throughout  the  entire 
Middle  Ages  the  Creed  stood  at  the  center  of  Christian 
instruction.*  Whatever  of  Christian  knowledge  was  in 
existence  attached  itself  to  this — and  to  the  Lord's 
Prayer.  Then  Luther  gave  to  the  Church  of  the  Re- 
formation his  wonderful  explanation  of  it.  Surely  the 
Creed  has  a  royal  history  to  look  back  upon. 

What  are  now  the  lessons  of  this  history  for  us  ?  First 
of  all  this — that  in  its  essential  parts  it  reaches  back  to 
the  beginnings  of  Christianity — even  in  case  we  should 
deny  that  it  was  in  its  fundamental  basis  already  the 
baptismal  confession  of  the  apostolic  Church.  It  testi- 
fies that  the  confession  of  allegiance  to  Christ  was  the 
foundation  of  the  Church  from  the  very  beginning.  It  is 
ecumenical,  even  though  not  in  its  present  form;  for 
even  the  so-called  Nicene  Creed  is  only  a  presentation  of 
its  original  form  enlarged  by  dogmatic  definitions.  A 
break  with  this  confession,  therefore,  indicated  a  break 
with  the  whole  history  of  the  Church.  But  the  changes 
which  have  been  made  in  it  should  teach  us  to  regard  it, 
not  as  a  formula  in  itself  sacred,  but  as  a  living  entity, 
and  not  to  cling  to  each  separate  part,  but  apprehend  it 
as  a  whole.  Guided  by  its  history,  we  will,  therefore, 
place  a  different  valuation  upon  that  which  belonged  to 
it  from  the  time  of  its  origin  and  that  which  was  added 
at  a  comparatively  late  day. 

Its  history  teaches  plainly  that  its  germ  consisted  in 
its  declarations  concerning  Christ,  especially  His  death 
upon  the  cross  and  His  resurrection,  and  that  the  original 


*  Fr.  Wiegand,  "Das  apostolische  Symbol  im  Mittelalter,"  1904  ; 
"Die  Stellung  des  apostolischen  Symbols  im  kirchlichen  Leben 
des  Mittelalters,"  Leipsic,  1903. 


18          THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

purpose  of  these  utterances  was,  not  to  furnish  holy 
mysteries  to  faith,  but  to  announce  what  Jesus  is  and 
what  proves  Him  to  be  the  Christ  of  God.*  Thus,  also, 
its  most  ancient  title,  "The  rule  of  truth"  (Irenaeus),  char- 
acterizes it  as  embracing  the  apostolic  proclamation  con- 
cerning Christ,  the  living  Truth.  A  careful  observance 
of  this,  its  genuine  purpose,  will  make  it  very  manifest 
that  there  is  no  contradiction  between  this  and  Luther's 
explanation. 

But,  after  all,  the  real  value  of  the  Creed  for  us  does 
not  depend  upon  its  history.  The  Reformation  has  taught 
us  that  even  that  which  has  a  long  history  on  its  side 
must  be  surrendered  if  it  obscures  the  truth  of  the  Gospel. 
We  are  familiar  also  with  the  saying  of  the  honored 
Church  Father:  "Jesus  Christ  called  Himself  the  truth, 
not  the  custom.  What  is  contrary  to  the  truth  is  heresy, 
even  though  it  be  ancient  custom."  Indeed,  it  may  be 
asked,  first  of  all :  Is  it  not  for  us,  as  sons  of  the  Reform- 
ation, to  decline  to  acknowledge  any  confession  at  all? 
Is  not  the  binding  force  of  a  symbol  in  conflict  with 
evangelical  liberty?  Faith  is  surely  the  most  personal 
of  all  things.  How  can  a  confession  of  faith  be  the  ex- 
pression of  the  religious  consciousness  of  all,  even  of 
those  living  in  the  most  widely  different  ages?  Further 
yet,  is  not  the  attempt  to  fix  in  definite  forms  of  utter- 

*Thus  Kattenbusch,  the  most  thorough  living  student  of  the 
history  of  the  Creed,  declares  (1.  c.,  p.  20)  that  the  original  text 
furnishes  the  "one  thesis" :  "That  we  believe  on  Christ  Jesus, 
who,  as  the  Son  of  God,  is  our  Lord,  and  it  furnishes  this  thesis 
in  such  a  way  that  it  describes  and  explains  in  how  far  this 
is  credible,  in  how  far  it  is  'true,'  and  wherein  Christ's  disposi- 
tion and  attitude  toward  us  reveal  themselves."  The  symbol 
"is  an  expression  of  the  conviction  that  we  have  our  relation  to 
God  through  Christ.  It  is  thus,  as  a  confession  of  faith,  the  ex- 
pression of  an  inner  decision  for  Christ." 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED          19 

ance  itself  in  conflict  with  the  directly  personal  nature  of 
religious  experience?  How  can  contact  with  the  infinite 
be  formulated  in  finite  terms? 

Yet  it  is  precisely  evangelical  faith  with  which  con- 
fession is  by  its  very  nature  most  intimately  associated. 
Evangelical  Christianity  is  personal  fellowship  with  God, 
and,  therefore,  evangelical  faith  is  confidence  in  the  gra- 
cious disposition  of  God.  But  such  confidence  is  founded 
upon  the  assurance  of  the  loving  will  of  God  given  in  the 
Gospel,  and  the  confession  is  faith's  response  to  the  Gos- 
pel. It  is  not  the  sense  of  his  nothingness  which  the 
evangelical  believer  recognizes  as  separating  from  God, 
but  it  is  his  guilt.  The  restoration  of  his  fellowship  with 
God  is  accomplished,  therefore,  by  God's  proclamation  of 
grace  as  over  against  this  guilt.  Evangelical  faith 
acknowledges  itself  as  conquered  by  the  revelation  of  the 
wonderful  love  of  God  for  sinners  and  thus  won  to  trust 
in  Him,  and  gives  utterance  to  that  which  has  become 
for  it  the  most  profound  heart-experience,  in  order  at 
the  same  time  to  bring  to  others  the  same  comfort  of 
God's  grace.  Thus  confession  cannot  be  separated  from 
evangelical  faith.  Other  religions  and  churches  operate 
through  mysterious  rites  and  ceremonies,  which  are  de- 
signed to  induce  frames  of  mind,  to  awaken  indefinable 
sensations.  The  Evangelical  Church  plants  itself  upon 
the  Word,  just  because  it  has  really  apprehended  Chris- 
tianity as  being  what  it  is,  i.e.,  personal  fellowship  with 
God;  for  fellowship  of  person  with  person  arises  only 
through  evidence  of  the  inner  disposition  manifested  in 
word,  as  Luther  express  it  in  his  profound  reformatory 
work,  "Of  the  Babylonian  Captivity":  "God  has  never 
dealt  with  men,  and  does  not  now  deal  with  them,  in  any 
other  way  than  through  a  word  of  promise.  We,  on  the 
other  hand,  can  never  deal  with  God  in  any  other  way 


20          THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

than  through  faith  in  His  word  of  promise."  But  the 
Confession  is  nothing  else  but  an  expression  of  this  faith 
which  the  Spirit  of  God  has  awakened  by  His  testimony. 

It  lies,  therefore,  in  the  very  nature  of  the  Lutheran 
Church  especially  to  be  a  confessing  Church.  It  was  from 
the  very  beginning  the  Church  of  the  pure  doctrine. 
This  has  never  been  understood  in  the  sense  of  the  Cath- 
olic churches,  in  which  the  orthodox  dogma,  as  the  pos- 
session of  a  knowledge  concerning  God  and  redemption, 
guarantees  salvation  and  opens  the  pathway  to  salvation, 
and  in  which  by  it,  as  the  doctrinal  law,  obedience  is  tested. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  Evangelical  Church  in  its  confes- 
sion is  concerned  only  that  the  Gospel  of  the  grace  of 
God  be  preserved  undistorted  and  unlimited.  If  Luther 
himself  so  positively  declined  fellowship  with  the  Swiss, 
it  was  not  from  fanatical  orthodoxy  nor  stubbornness, 
but  because  he  sought  to  prevent  any  obscuring  of  Christ 
as  the  true  Saviour.  For  him  the  saying  of  Paul,  "That 
life  which  I  now  live  in  the  flesh  I  live  in  faith,  the  faith 
which  is  in  the  Son  of  God,  who  loved  me  and  gave 
Himself  up  for  me,"  had  again  been  fully  realized.  He 
is  resolved,  therefore,  to  know  nothing  of  any  other  God 
than  of  Him  who  has  in  Christ  poured  out  His  whole 
heart  toward  us.  Thus  faith,  according  to  Luther,  can 
do  nothing  else  than  confess  Christ. 

But  has  the  Creed  in  itself  the  characteristics  of  such 
a  confession  of  Evangelical  faith  ?  Is  it  a  grateful  utter- 
ance of  faith  in  salvation  by  Christ  from  sin  and  guilt, 
in  reception  by  Christ  to  His  fellowship  and  preservation 
and  perfecting  therein?  This  is  the  question  of  real  im- 
portance for  us  to-day. 

It  has  been  said  that  we  miss  in  the  Creed  very  much 
which  belongs  to  a  proper  confession  of  faith.  It  has 
been  pointed  out  that  it  says  nothing  about  our  redemp- 


21 

tion  and  the  merit  of  Christ,  about  justification  and  the 
way  of  salvation,  nothing  about  the  nature  of  God  and 
the  person  of  Christ,  about  the  universality  of  grace, 
about  sin  and  conversion,  regeneration  and  good  works, 
about  the  word  and  sacraments  and  their  salutary  use. 
But  we  are  not  at  liberty  to  force  into  the  Creed  that 
which  is  foreign  to  its  purpose.  The  very  character  of 
these  objections  shows  that  they  have  not  been  raised 
by  any  modern  theologian.  They  are  really  to  be  traced 
to  Abraham  Calovius,  the  most  orthodox  of  the  orthodox 
(1655).  He  was  led  to  offer  them  when  resisting  the 
attempt  to  reduce  the  content  of  Christian  faith  by  exalt- 
ing the  authority  of  the  Creed.*  What  Calovius  asserts 
of  the  Creed  is  really  that  it  is  not  a  compendium  of  Luth- 
eran dogmatics.  To-day,  offence  is  taken  at  its  utter- 
ances concerning  Christ,  because,  although  not  dogmatic, 
they  are  yet  found  altogether  too  dogmatic.  The  shift- 
ing grounds  of  this  criticism  should  warn  us  not  to  allow 
ourselves  to  be  imposed  upon  by  it.  But  it  should  also 
remind  us  that  the  Creed  dare  never  be  for  us  merely 
an  external  authority  of  a  legal  nature,  and  that  it  is  not 
of  value  for  us  simply  on  its  own  account,  but  through 
its  testimony  to  Christ  and  the  salvation  which  is  in 
Him. 

It  follows,  from  what  has  been  said,  that  we  should 
treat  of  the  Creed  as  a  whole,  if  we  are  to  realize  what  it 
is  for  us.f  But,  thus  considered,  it  is  a  confession  of  alle- 
giance to  the  One  living  God,  who  has  revealed  Himself 
to  us  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  who  through  His  Spirit  enables 


*  At  a  later  day,  as  is  well  known,  Lessing  assigned  to  the 
Creed,  as  having  been  delivered  to  the  apostles  by  Christ  Him- 
self, a  higher  authority  than  that  of  the  Scriptures.  Grundtvig, 
also,  upon  other  grounds,  exalted  it  above  the  Scriptures. 

t  Kunze  has  recently  very  properly  emphasized  this  in  his  ex- 


22          THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

us  to  appropriate  Him.  It  contains  nothing  of  theology, 
and  says  nothing  about  us,  except  that  we  believe  in  God 
through  Christ.  On  the  contrary,  the  deeds  of  God  in 
Christ  for  us  and  upon  us  make  up  its  content.  The  sig- 
nificance of  the  Reformation  consists  precisely  in  its  clear 
enunciation  of  the  fact  that  we  attain  to  union  with  God, 
not  at  all  by  any  way  of  self-deliverance,  merely  in- 
structed in  that  which  is  good  and  imitating  the  wonder- 
ful example  of  Jesus;  but  because  God  reveals  Himself 
in  Christ  as  the  only  Mediator  of  our  salvation,  thereby 
awakening  in  our  hearts,  filled  with  fear  and  distrust,  the 
confidence  of  faith,  and  thus  bringing  us  into  fellowship 
with  Himself.  God,  our  God  through  Christ  our  Saviour 
— this  is  what  Luther  recognized  as  the  content  of  the 
Creed.  In  accordance  with  this,  he  assigns  to  it  its 
place  in  his  catechism :  Teach  the  Ten  Commandments, 
"what  we  must  do" ;  then  the  Creed,  "what  God  does  for 
us  and  gives  us."  Luther  sees  in  the  Creed  a  plain  sum- 
mary of  scriptural  truth.  He  calls  it  the  "Children's 
Creed,"  since  it  is  "even  for  children  and  the  simple,  easy 
to  learn."  As  is  well  known,  he  himself  included  it  in 
his  prayers  for  his  own  edification,  and  advised  his 
friends  before  beginning  their  prayers  to  first  preach  to 
themselves  the  grace  of  God  through  the  Creed.  Ac- 
cording to  him,  we  learn  from  it  that  we  are  God's 
creatures  and  workmanship — yes,  His  children,  who  shall 
live  with  our  Father  forever.  If  we  were  lost  through 
sin,  yet  God's  Son,  Jesus  Christ,  "out  of  pure  love  to  us," 
"redeemed  and  bought  me,  until  He  shall  bring  me  to  eter- 
nal life."  But  through  His  Spirit  He  enables  me  to  "feel 


cellent  work,  designed  for  general  distribution,  "Das  apostol- 
ische  Glaubensbekenntniss  ein  unverausserlicb.es  Gut  der  evan- 
gelischen  Kirche."  Berlin,  1913. 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED          23 

creation  and  redemption  in  my  heart."  He  "writes  it  in- 
wardly upon  the  heart."  Hence  his  summary  of  this  con- 
fession: "That  we  may  know  and  believe  that  we  are 
Christians  and  delivered  from  eternal  death,  sins,  and  the 
power  of  the  devil  and  the  jaws  of  hell,"  because  "Christ 
became  man,  died  and  rose  again  for  me."*  Therefore, 
"whoever  does  not  find  and  lay  hold  of  God  in  Christ, 
he  shall  out  of  Christ  never  and  nowhere  have  or  find 
God,  even  though  he  travel  above  the  heavens,  beneath 
hell,  beyond  the  world."  f  It  is  the  same  truth  which 
Luther  never  tires  of  repeating  ever  anew,  that  "outside 
of  God,  who  is  a  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus,"  we  should 
"seek  and  honor  no  other  God";  for  in  Christ  "God  de- 
picts to  us  just  exactly  how  He  is  disposed  toward  us." 
It  is  precisely  in  this  intensive  conception  of  the  person  of 
Christ  that  we  find  the  evangelical  basis  of  Luther's  view. 
That  God  is  here  for  us  and  that  /  have  God  for  my  God, 
of  this  we  become  conscious,  according  to  Luther,  in 
Christ.  From  this  it  follows,  as  a  matter  of  course,  that 
in  confessing  the  Creed  it  must  always  mean  for  us,  "in 
our  suffering,  our  dead,  our  risen  (Lord)  ;  that  it  is  all 
ours  and  avails  for  us."$  But  who  among  those  who  hold 
fast  to  the  Creed  has  failed  to  understand  that  not  knowl- 
edge of  any  kind,  and  not  an  acceptance  of  facts  as  true, 
unites  us  with  God,  but  only  the  trust  in  Him  as  our 
God  wrought  by  God's  concrete  testimony  in  Christ.  It 
is  not  our  view  that  one  "must  have  already  confessed 
acceptance  of  the  thesis  concerning  the  divinity  of  Christ, 
before  we  find  in  Christ  the  Redeemer."  We  do  not  urge 
anyone  that  "he  shall  acknowledge  the  statements  of  the 

*  Auslegung    des    christlichen    Glaubens,    gehalten,    1537,    zu 
Schmalkalden,  Erl.  A.  23,  p.  23pff. 
t  "Die  drei  Symbola,"  ib.  p.  259. 
t  Ib.  A.  23,  p.  237. 


24          THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

Creed,  in  order  that  he  may  thereby  secure  the  basis 
for  Christian  faith."*  On  the  contrary,  we  are  very  much 
more  concerned  that  we  "through  Christ"  have  the 
confidence  toward  God  which  overcomes  sin  and  death. 
The  Creed  is  not  to  make  the  attainment  of  a  definite 
height  of  religious  knowledge  the  condition  of  Christian- 
ity, but  in  its  short  declarations  we  find  expressed  so 
clearly  and  definitely  "why  the  person  of  Jesus,  and  it 
alone,  furnishes  the  foundation  of  our  faith."f  The 
revelation  of  God  in  Christ  the  foundation  of  our  salva- 
tion,— this  is  for  us  the  content  of  the  Creed,  and  this 
agrees,  as  we  have  seen,  with  the  original  understanding 
of  it. 

But  should  there  not  also  be  room  in  our  Evangelical 
Lutheran  Church  for  other  forms  of  confession  besides 
the  Apostles'  Creed?  Who  would  deny  this?  There  is 
already  a  great  difference  of  usage  in  this  particular 
among  the  various  territorial  churches  which  neverthe- 
less recognize  one  another  as  confessionally  most  closely 
united.  To  bind  exclusively  to  any  definite  form  of  con- 
fession would  be  entirely  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  Protest- 
antism. In  confirmation  and  ordination,  as  well  as  in  the 
stated  services  of  the  Church,  another  form  of  confession 
might  fittingly  set  forth  our  salvation  through  Christ. 
We  love  the  Apostles'  Creed  on  account  of  its  history  ex- 
tending back  to  the  beginnings  of  Christianity,  and  be- 
cause it  speaks  so  clearly  and  plainly  of  all  that  by  which 
Christ  has  shown  and  still  shows  Himself  to  be  our  Lord, 
of  His  Spirit  and  the  Spirit's  gifts  in  the  present  and  the 
future ;  but  why  should  our  confident  trust  in  God  through 


*  This  is  Herrmann's  view :    "Worum  handelt  es  sich  in  dem 
Streit  um  das  Apostolicum?"    Leipsic,  1893,  p.  I2ff.,  18. 
fib.  pp.  27,  29. 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED          25 

Christ  not  find  expression  also  in  other  words?  In  this 
view,  there  can  be  no  objection  to  parallel  formulas. 
When,  as  an  expression  of  the  same  faith,  the  attain- 
ment of  fellowship  with  God  through  Christ  is  confessed 
in  the  same  way,  this  may  be  done  in  very  different 
words.  We  do  not  recognize  the  binding  obligation  to  the 
formula  which  is  characteristic  of  Catholic  Christianity. 
Only  then — but  then  very  positively — are  parallel  formu-1 
las  excluded,  when,  upon  the  ground  of  a  consciousness 
of  variance  in  the  faith,  the  substitution  of  another  con- 
fession for  the  Apostles'  Creed  is  desired.  In  the  case  of 
any  such  substantial,  profound  antagonism,  the  proposal 
of  parallel  formularies  would  be  an  obscuration,  and  their 
approval  by  friends  of  the  Creed  a  surrender,  of  that 
which  they  have  acknowledged  as  sure  evangelical  truth, 
inasmuch  as  they  would  thus  cast  the  reproach  of  uncer- 
tainty upon  it. 

Certainly  no  one  would  question  the  statement  that  the 
present  demand  for  the  abolition  of  the  requirement  of 
subscription  to  the  Creed  rests,  for  the  most  part,  upon 
objections  to  its  content.  Hence  no  one  can  join  in  this 
demand  who  regards  the  Creed  as  a  confession  of  faith 
in  the  redemptive  works  of  God.  Such  will  not,  of 
course,  at  any  time  be  without  consideration  for  the  con- 
scientious scruples  which  may  be  entertained  by  any 
against  the  Creed.  They  will  rather  maintain  that  it  ex- 
ists not  for  the  burdening,  but  for  the  comfort  and 
strengthening  of  the  conscience ;  that  it  does  not  demand 
a  meritorious  subjection  to  separate  statements  of  belief, 
but  seeks  to  beget  a  joyous  confidence  in  the  crucified 
and  risen  Son  of  God,  as  Luther  expresses  it  in  his  ex- 
planation :  "That  Jesus  Christ  is  my  Lord,  who  has  re- 
deemed me  with  His  blood."  It  is  not  to  a  scholastic 
formula  that  the  Creed  seeks  to  bind  us,  but  to  the  person 


26          THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

of  Jesus,  as  to  our  true  Saviour,  and  through  Him  to 
God. 

But  for  any  denial  of  this  firm  establishment  of  our 
faith  upon  Christ  there  is  no  room  in  the  Church  of  the 
pure  Gospel.  Being  essentially  a  confessional  Church,  it 
cannot  at  the  same  time  accord  any  rights  within  its 
bounds  to  the  rejection  or  ignoring  of  its  Confession.  He 
to  whom  the  Creed  is  his  personal  assent  to  the  testi- 
mony of  the  Gospel,  and  to  whom  the  content  of  his 
faith  is  certain  truth,  cannot  likewise  acknowledge  as 
truth  an  opposing  confession  springing  from  another 
faith.  To  make  concessions  here  would  be  unfaithful- 
ness and  sinning  against  known  truth.  It  is  not  a  ques- 
tion here  of  theological  differences,  but  of  differences  of 
faith — a  question  of  the  conscience  bound  by  the  word 
of  God.  To  introduce  the  Creed  with  a  modifying  for- 
mula would  no  less  imply  a  hesitancy  to  acknowledge  it 
as  the  certain  truth.  It  would,  furthermore,  as  a  subter- 
fuge, be  an  offence  against  honesty.  That  which  has  be- 
come to  the  Church  doubtful,  she  dare  no  longer  confess. 

To  employ  any  kind  of  compulsion  in  matters  of  con- 
science would  indeed  be  entirely  contrary  to  evangelical 
principles.  But  the  opponents  of  the  Creed  feel  them- 
selves burdened  by  the  requirement  of  subscription  to  it, 
just  as  well  as  the  conscience  of  those  who  accept  it  for- 
bids them  to  consent  to  its  abandonment.  Would  it  not 
be  the  proper  course,  under  these  circumstances,  to  cease 
the  attempt  to  reconcile  the  irreconcilable?  Two  reli- 
gions stand  to-day  opposed  to  one  another  in  our  midst. 
Both  claim  to  hold  to  Jesus ;  the  one  because  by  Him  they 
have  been  taught  of  their  relationship  to  God  and  aroused 
to  seek  its  realization;  the  other  because  He  is  the  per- 
sonal and  eternal  Mediator  of  their  fellowship  with  God. 
Should  they  not,  in  sincere  love  of  liberty  for  themselves 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED          27 

and  for  one  another,  separate  in  peace,  each  with  an  inde- 
pendent church  polity — perhaps,  for  the  present,  still 
joined  in  an  alliance?  According  to  their  present  legally- 
established  church  order,  the  Evangelical  churches  of 
Germany  are  confessional  churches.  It  does  not  seem 
to  me  to  be  impossible  to  reach  an  understanding  with 
such  opponents  of  the  Creed  as  have  an  appreciation  of 
that  which  is  historically  and  legally  established.  If 
those  who  stand  upon  the  basis  of  this  legally  established 
right  would  by  the  above  plan  have  indeed  to  surrender 
many  legal  rights,  this  would  only  be  done  in  order  that 
by  the  subsequent  voluntary  adoption  of  the  obligatory 
subscription  among  themselves  they  might  secure  in- 
struction in  harmony  with  the  Creed  in  preaching,  paro- 
chial schools,  catechisation  and  pastoral  oversight.  The 
other  party  would  thus  be  released  from  an  obligation 
inconsistent  with  sincere  honesty  upon  their  part.  But  I 
merely  suggest  this  method  which  appears  to  me  to  be 
indicated  as  feasible  in  the  present  situation  in  the 
Church,  as  alone  meeting  the  requirements  of  conscien- 
tious convictions  upon  both  sides.  For,  in  confessional 
questions,  conscience  alone  must  decide,  not  any  consid- 
erations of  Church  polity. 

Not  long  since,  I  received,  as  did  others  among  us,  an 
inquiry  from  America  whether  it  would  not  be  advisable, 
in  the  truest  interest  of  the  Church,  to  be  satisfied  with 
that  which  Abraham  Lincoln  once  advocated:  Instead 
of  all  confessions  of  faith,  to  write  upon  the  altar  of  the 
Church  as  the  only  condition  of  membership,  "Thou  shalt 
love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  thy  neigh- 
bor as  thyself."  Who  would  not  with  his  whole  heart 
agree  that  this  is  in  reality  all  that  is  required  ?  But  it  is 
the  misery  of  our  sad  daily  experience  that  there  is  no 
love  to  God  in  our  hearts,  but  fear  of  God  and  love  of 


28          THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

self — that  we  have  no  fountain  of  love  within  us.  There 
is  only  one  source  of  true  love,  the  love  of  God,  which 
reveals  itself  in  Christ.  "Herein  is  love,  not  that  we 
loved  God,  but  that  He  loved  us,  and  sent  His  Son  to  be 
the  propitiation  for  our  sins."  "God  is  love" — this  has 
been  made  manifest  in  Christ.  Its  manifestation  is  the 
great  event  in  the  history  of  religion.  The  Creed  con- 
fesses our  belief  of  this,  and,  therefore,  we  cannot  sur- 
render it.  It  testifies  to  Christ,  the  crucified  and  risen 
One,  as  our  only  salvation.  Such  a  valuation  of  a  reli- 
gious reality  cannot  indeed  be  made  to  harmonize  with 
the  relativity  which  alone  science  is  willing  to  recognize. 
But  the  peculiar  mission  of  religion  is  deliverance  from 
that  which  is  relative  and  the  uniting  of  man  with  the 
eternal  God.  This  I  find  only  in  Christ  our  Lord.  "He 
that  hath  the  Son  hath  the  life ;  he  that  hath  not  the  Son 
of  God  hath  not  the  life." 


CHAPTER  II 
I  Believe  in  God,  the  Almighty  Father 

BY  DR.  T.  KAFTAN 

GENERAL   SUPERINTENDENT   OF   SCHLESWIG 

"I  believe  in  God,  the  almighty  Father" — thus  begins 
the  Confession  of  which  it  may  be  said  with  real  and 
profound  truthfulness  that  it  has  been,  is,  and  shall  re- 
main till  the  end  of  time,  the  common  Creed  of  Christen- 
dom. 

Narrow-spirited  pedantry,  indeed,  is  not  slow  to  re- 
mind us  that  this  confession  appears  historically  in  vari- 
ous forms;  that  in  its  present  form  it  dates  from  the 
fifth  century ;  and  that  the  Oriental  Church  does  not  state 
its  faith  in  precisely  this  language.  This  is  all  more  or 
less  true.  But  what  does  it  signify?  Even  the  Lord's 
Prayer  has  not  been  handed  down  to  us  in  an  unchange- 
able form;  yet,  despite  this  fact,  it  has  been,  is,  and  will 
remain  as  long  as  Christians  pray,  the  prayer  of  Christen- 
dom. If  this  be  true  of  the  prayer  which  the  Lord  gave 
us,  how  much  more  of  the  confession  which  springs  from 
human  hearts  as  an  echo  of  the  Gospel  ?  The  forms  may 
vary,  but  the  germ  and  contents  are  the  same.  The  out- 
cry of  a  petty  pedantry  may  impress  those  who  are  slaves 
to  the  letter,  but  cannot  affect  those  who,  having  attained 
to  the  liberty  of  the  children  of  God,  although  still  valu- 
ing the  letter  as  an  indispensable  form,  live  by  the  spirit. 
That  this  Creed  not  only  has  been,  but  is  the  confes- 
sion of  Christendom,  is  evidenced  by  the  unanimous  up- 

29 


30          THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

rising  of  the  Church,  i.e.,  the  believing,  Christ-confessing 
Church  of  to-day,  in  its  behalf  against  the  assault  of  those 
who  "went  out  from  us,  but  were  not  of  us."  And  what 
it  has  been  and  is,  that  will  it  remain.  This  is  a  con- 
viction, not  of  the  intellect,  but  of  faith ;  but  it  is  a  convic- 
tion of  faith  which  has  great  certainty,  for  it  involves 
nothing  less  than  the  entire  basis  of  faith  in  Christ. 

"I  believe  in  God,  the  almighty  Father," — so  runs  the 
Creed,  according  to  the  original  text,  though  not  as  it 
meets  us  everywhere  to-day  in  our  catechisms,  in  which 
the  word  "almighty"  is  construed  as  a  second  substantive, 
or  is  even  attached  to  the  words,  "Creator  of  heaven 
and  earth,"  a  fully-justified  but  later  clause  of  the 
Creed.  That  this  was  the  original  form  may  be  in- 
ferred beyond  all  doubt  from  the  Creed  itself.  For 
when,  in  the  second  article,  reference  is  made  to  the  first 
article  in  the  clause,  "sitting  at  the  right  hand  of  God 
the  almighty  Father,"  this  same  form  faces  us  undisputed 
and  indisputable.  That  I  lay  such  emphasis  upon  this  is 
not  a  haggling  over  the  letter.  Only  by  observing  this 
difference  can  we  preserve  the  full  truth  which  the 
Church  has  confessed  and  still  confesses — as  will,  I  trust, 
be  evident  from  the  further  discussion. 

Trustworthy  scholars  have  emphasized  yet  another 
point  as  a  result  of  careful  historical  study  of  the  text  of 
the  Creed.  They  assure  us  that  it  originally  began : .  "I 
believe  in  ONE  God,  the  almighty  Father."  It  is  not  im- 
probable that  they  are  correct,  but  a  decision  of  the  matter 
could  be  reached  only  by  a  full  discussion  of  the  history 
of  the  text,  which  would  here  be  out  of  place.  The  entire 
question  is  of  no  particular  importance,  and,  at  all  events, 
without  significance  for  the  present,  since  it  is  well  known 
that  the  Church  abandoned  this  intoning  of  the  ONE  at 
least  fifteen  hundred  years  ago.  We  can  understand  that 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED          31 

the  Church,  which  had  come  in  part  from  the  heathen 
world  and  was  professing  its  faith  before  the  surround- 
ing heathen,  should  lay  strong  emphasis  upon  the  truth 
that  God  is  ONE  God.  But  we  can  understand  equally 
well  that  she  should  at  a  later  day  drop  this  emphasis 
when  a  multiplicity  of  Gods  was  no  longer  thought  of. 
To  lay  stress  upon  the  unity  of  God  to-day  would  be  to 
emphasize  what  is  self-evident  to  all. 

"I  believe  in  God,  the  almighty  Father" — this  utterance 
of  faith,  with  which  the  common  Creed  of  Christendom 
begins,  contains  in  a  certain  sense  the  entire  Creed.  Our 
ancient-church  and  universal-Christian  confession  of 
faith — and  this  is  a  fact  which  must  always  be  maintained 
against  all  attempts  to  dismember  it — is  in  its  three  arti- 
cles a  thoroughly  harmonious  confession.  Those  who,  in 
order  to  foist  upon  our  people  another  than  the  ancient 
Christian  faith,  are  endeavoring  to  make  the  Apostles' 
Creed  distasteful  to  our  Evangelical  masses,  not  only  cut 
it  up  into  three  or  four  confessions,  but  so  mutilate  it  as 
to  inquire  whether  the  assertion  that  Christ  was  "buried" 
is  really  an  object  of  Christian  faith.  Blind  leaders  of  the 
blind!  They  themselves  do  not  perceive  that  the  state- 
ments in  this  confession  have  no  reference  at  all  to  facts, 
but  to  persons,  and  that  everything  which  comes  into  view 
as  a  fact  is  more  or  less  merely  a  characterization  of  a 
person.  They  do  not  perceive  that  this  entire  Confession 
in  its  three  articles  is  nothing  more  nor  less  than  a  con- 
fession of  allegiance  of  the  human  soul  to  the  God  of 
revelation;  i.e.,  to  the  living  God.  But  this,  the  living 
God,  is  called  Father,  Son  and  Spirit.  Father,  Son  and 
Spirit  are  not  three  Gods,  but  one.  As  the  Son  is  not 
without  the  Father,  so  the  Father  is  not  without  the  Son, 
and  both  are  one  in  the  Spirit.  Or,  to  speak  from  our 
viewpoint,  we  do  not  have  the  Father  without  the  Son, 


32          THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

and  this  Father  in  the  Son  we  do  not  know  without  the 
Spirit.  Again,  it  is  a  petty  pedantry  when  it  is  said :  Oh, 
yes,  the  first  article  a  reasonable  man  may  readily  ac- 
cept Christians  share  this  first  article  in  its  essential 
import  with  Jews  and  Mohammedans — yes,  say  some, 
with  all  people  of  sound  understanding.  But  this  is 
sheer  folly,  the  most  incredible  stupidity.  The  whole  con- 
ception in  the  Creed  is  a  profound  and  inseparable  unity. 
He  who  does  not  know  the  Spirit,  knows  not  the  Son ;  he 
who  has  not  the  Son,  has  not  the  Father.  There  is  a 
great  and  a  profound  truth  in  the  declaration  above  made, 
that  the  utterance  of  faith  with  which  the  Creed  opens 
contains  in  a  certain  sense  the  whole  Creed. 

"I  believe  in  God,  the  almighty  Father" — this  is  an  ut- 
terance in  the  depths  of  simplicity  and  upon  the  heights 
of  wisdom  and  knowledge.  It  is  a  sublime  declaration. 

"I  believe" — we  say  it  with  a  full  and  clear  realization 
of  that  which  the  word  affirms.  What  is  here  confessed 
as  the  content  of  faith  is  not  an  object  of  intellectual  per- 
ception. The  latter  cannot  extend  its  vision  to  that 
which  is  here  confessed.  It  creeps  about  in  the  lowlands 
of  that  which  we  perceive  by  the  senses  and  can  include 
in  the  categories  of  the  understanding.  But  that  which 
is  here  confessed  stretches  out  as  far  above  this  as  the 
heavens  are  higher  than  the  earth.  There,  all  is  piece- 
work. Here,  we  grasp  a  whole, — in  the  last  analysis,  the 
Whole.  What  is  here  confessed  is  a  content  of  faith, 
not  a  fruit  of  speculation.  The  speculation  of  men  is 
a  reaching  out  in  an  attempt  to  grasp;  it  is  a  touching, 
not  a  grasping;  only  too  often  a  losing  of  one's  self  in 
the  incomprehensible,  a  weaving  together  of  ribbons  of 
mist.  But  here  we  lay  hold  upon  that  which  is  firmer 
than  rock.  We  grasp  in  this  Creed  the  reality  of  all  reali- 
ties. An  apprehension,  a  laying  hold  of  this,  is  faith — the 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED          33 

faith  which  is  born  from  the  everlasting  depths  of  revela- 
tion. 

"I  believe  in  God,  the  almighty  Father" — the  emphasis 
lies  upon  the  "almighty  Father."  What  is  God  ?  "God" 
is  everything,  and  "God"  is  an  empty  form.  God  is  all, 
if  He  is  thought  of  in  His  living  essence  and  reality; 
but  we  then  include  in  the  conception  all  that  we  Chris- 
tians confess  of  Him  when  we  call  Him  the  almighty 
Father.  The  word  "God"  is  in  itself  a  form,  whose  con- 
tent needs  to  be  furnished  from  without.  God,  says 
worldly  wisdom,  is  the  Absolute  :  God,  say  the  Scriptures, 
is  the  First  and  the  Last.  Yes,  in  some  way  we  all  have 
a  conception  of  God — all  of  us,  that  is,  who  live  not  as 
higher  beasts  but  as  men,  as  creatures  who  think,  who 
give  serious  attention  to  the  things  about  them,  to  them- 
selves, and  to  the  realities  of  existence.  There  must  cer- 
tainly somehow  be  a  Last — something  which  exists  of  it- 
self, and  out  of  which  all  things  spring — something  that 
bears  up  all  things  and  is  in  some  way  a  finality.  Thus 
reason  not  only  those  who  conceive  of  God  in  His  reality, 
His  living  essence,  His  presence;  but  also  those  who 
think  of  some  kind  of  a  hidden  Being  behind  the  clouds, 
who  at  one  time  called  the  world  into  being  and  wound 
up  the  world-clock,  allowing  it  now  to  run  down  accord- 
ing to  its  own  unalterable  laws.  Thus  reason  also  those 
who  do  not  look  above  the  clouds,  whose  vision  ends 
with  the  boundaries  of  the  world,  who  know  nothing 
but  the  world,  whose  God  is  the  world  itself  as  a  self- 
existent,  boundless,  self-developing  entity.  Thus  reason, 
still  further,  those  who  understand  this  entity  as  merely 
Nature,  who,  themselves  spirit-forsaken,  have  no  con- 
ception of  spirit  and  see  in  the  universe  only  manifesta- 
tions of  matter — whose  God  is  matter. 

Thus  is  the  word  "God"  a  form,  whose  content  must 


34          THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

be  furnished  from  without.  It  is  Christianity  which  fills 
this  form  with  incomparable  content,  with  a  content  full 
of  truth  and  full  of  life,  with  the  content  which  it  derives 
.  from  the  revelation  of  the  Only  One,  when,  firmly  hold- 
ing the  truth  amid  the  confusion  of  religions,  it  simply 
and  grandly  confesses  among  the  nations  of  the  world: 
I  believe  in  God,  the  almighty  Father. 

The  almighty  Father — that  is  what  God  is.  Let  us 
endeavor — although  in  the  insufficiency  of  our  human 
powers,  yet  as  clearly  as  we  can — to  set  forth  the  truth 
which  is  embraced  in  the  fullness  of  this  confession. 

If  God  is  the  almighty  Father,  this  undoubtedly  in- 
volves, first  of  all,  that  He  is  Personality — not  Nature, 
but  more  than  Nature;  that  He  is  Spirit — not  the  world- 
spirit,  but  the  Spirit  of  the  world,  the  personal  Spirit 
who,  although  interpenetrating  the  world  and  bearing  it 
within  Himself,  yet  reaches  far  out  beyond  everything 
which  the  world  contains. 

Personality — we  are  well  aware  of  the  limitations 
which  the  thought  involves.  We  know  personality  only 
as  manifested  in  human  character.  But  everything  human 
is  limited.  If  we  are  to  think  of  God  as  a  Personality, 
the  conception  of  personality  must  be  stripped  of  its  limi- 
tations and  its  relativity.  We  human  beings  as  person- 
alities are  not  bound  to  time — we  live  not  only  in  the 
present,  but  also  in  the  past  and  the  future;  we  are  not 
bound  to  space — we  traverse  in  spirit  the  known  world. 
Yet  we  are  not  independent  of  time  nor  of  space.  But 
God  is  thus  independent.  He  it  is  who  exists  from  eter- 
nity to  eternity,  before  whom  a  thousand  years  are  as  a 
day  that  is  past,  who,  therefore,  remains  as  He  is.  He  it  is 
whom  the  heaven  of  heavens  cannot  contain — both  the 
God  who  is  near  and  the  God  who  is  afar  off.  We  con- 
ceive of  ourselves  as  personalities  only  when  we  think 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED          35 

of  ourselves  as  individuals  in  contrast  with  other  indi- 
viduals. God  is  not  an  individual  in  contrast  with  others 
— all  things  exist  in  Him.  He  is,  as  a  theologian  of  our 
day  has  expressed  it,  "The  harmonious  Allness  of  spir- 
itual personal  life."  God  is  Personality,  but — mark  well 
— divine  Personality,  a  Power  of  self-contained  thought 
and  will. 

And  this  Personality  is  the  Power.  This  is  involved 
in  the  attribute  which  we  ascribe  to  the  Father  when  we 
confess  Him  as  the  Almighty.  What  do  we  mean  when 
we  declare  that  He  is  the  Power?  We  mean  that  He 
is  the  Source  and  Lord  of  all  the  Existence  which  sur- 
rounds us  and  of  which  we  ourselves  are  a  part  and  as 
a  drop  in  the  ocean.  God  is  not  this  Existence  itself,  nor 
the  sum  of  all  the  forces  and  laws  in  this  commingling 
of  nature  and  spirit.  He  is  the  living  foundation  of  all 
this.  Of  Him  and  by  Him  are  all  things;  all  things  are 
in  Him.  But  they  are  not  in  Him  as  in  a  natural  founda- 
tion. God  is  spiritual,  i.e.,  the  conscious  controlling 
foundation  of  all  things.  It  is  He  who  from  eternity  to 
eternity  calls  into  existence  whatever  appears,  in  order 
that  His  purposes  may  be  accomplished.  As  the  world 
is  His  handiwork,  and  He  the  source  of  all  life,  so  also 
is  that  which  we  call  history  the  realization  of  His  will. 
The  historical  life  of  the  human  race  which  fills  the  cen- 
turies is  a  texture  woven  by  free  personal  forces,  yet 
a  texture  amid  whose  countless  threads  He  casts  the 
woof,  Himself  the  Master-weaver  at  the  loom  of  time. 

In  this  way,  God  has  absolute  control  over  all  things 
that  exist  and  that  come  into  being,  the  small  as  well  as 
the  great.  We  are  to  understand  it  literally  when  the 
Lord  Jesus  declares  that  without  Him  no  sparrow  falls 
to  the  ground.  And  as  the  One  who  has  thus  absolute 
control  of  all  things  that  exist  and  come  into  being,  He  is 


36          THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

the  living  God,  the  God  who  doeth  wonders.  Our  God 
is  in  the  heavens;  He  can  do  whatsoever  He  will.  All 
working  forces  are  His,  and  His  are  all  the  regulations 
in  accordance  with  which  they  work.  His  greatness  is 
manifest  in  the  fact  that  He  is  a  God  of  order,  of  an 
order,  if  we  choose  so  to  designate  it,  a  conformity  to  law 
which  is  seen  in  the  greatest  and  the  smallest  things,  in 
the  drop  in  the  bucket  as  well  as  in  the  boundless  expanse 
of  space  in  which  the  stars  revolve. 

But  this  fixed  order  of  nature  is  not  the  final  goal  of 
His  purposes.  The  world  is  not  an  end  in  itself,  but  the 
theater  upon  which  are  wrought  out  His  designs,  designs 
which  are  of  spiritual  and  eternal  character.  All  His 
control  and  regulated  government  of  created  things  is 
absolutely  conditioned  by  these  His  final  designs.  Where 
these  require  it,  He  compels  the  forces  of  nature  to  act 
in  a  way  quite  different  from  that  which  we  observe  in 
their  ordinary  course.  He  performs  deeds  which  are 
manifestly  His  deeds,  because  they  are  intended  to  be 
such;  deeds  of  power,  which  we  call  miracles.  But  He 
Himself  is  precisely  the  same  when  performing  these 
wonders  of  power  as  in  those  works  which  we,  in  the 
limitations  of  our  knowledge,  are  accustomed  to  designate 
His  regular  and  ordinary  works.  In  both  alike  He  works. 
Whatever  comes  to  pass,  whether  it  be  a  so-called  miracle 
or  a  so-called  work  of  nature,  He  is  always  the  final  and 
efficient  source.  If  He  withdraws  His  breath,  the  uni- 
verse is  no  more.  This  is  what  we  mean  when  we  say 
that  God  is  power,  absolute  Power. 

And  this  God,  who  is  Power,  who  as  the  Almighty  is 
the  Omnipresent,  and  as  the  Omnipresent  the  Omniscient, 
and  as  the  All-controlling  the  All-wise — this  Almighty 
One  is  the  Father.  When  we  confess  God  as  the  Al- 
mighty, the  eye  of  our  faith  penetrates  to  the  length  and 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED    37 

the  breadth,  the  heights  and  the  depths  of  the  universe. 
But  when  we  stammeringly  call  Him  Father,  we  gaze  into 
the  profoundest  depths.  This  is  the  stupendous,  incom- 
prehensible fact,  that  eternal  Power  has,  in  that  Jesus 
who  was  Christ,  .revealed  itself  as  our  Father.  Here 
gushes  forth  a  stream  from  the  depths  of  eternity — here 
beams  upon  us  the  Light  that  is  the  life  of  the  world. 

The  Father — our  Father — we  draw  upon  the  realm 
of  the  familiar  in  our  human  life  in  order  to  express  in 
regard  to  the  Incomprehensible  One  the  loftiest  and  the 
most  profound  experience  which  we  may  have  of  Him 
and  in  Him.  We  call  Him  Father  to  whom  we  trace 
our  origin.  But  this  is  an  external  idea.  It  has  been 
anticipated  even  by  those  who  are  accustomed  to  speak 
of  the  All-Father.  When  we  speak  of  a  fellow-man  as 
paternal,  we  mean  to  say  that  he  exercises  watchful  care, 
that  he  guides  and  leads  safely  on  the  way  of  life.  But 
this  does  not  exhaust  the  meaning  of  the  word.  The 
Psalmist  already  speaks  of  God  as  one  who  pitieth  those 
who  fear  Him  as  a  father  pitieth  his  children.  The  most 
profound  and  final  idea  involved  when  we  confess  the 
Power  as  "The  Father,"  is  expressed  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment declaration,  "God  is  Love."  If  personal  life  is  the 
highest  form  of  life,  life  itself — the  loftiest  and  pro- 
foundest life — is  Love.  God  is  Love — holy,  eternal  Love. 
This  is  what  we  confess  when  we  call  God  Father. 

But  again — what  love  is  we  know  primarily  and  directly 
only  through  our  fellowship  with  men.  We  make  bold  to 
attribute  to  God  this  loftiest  human  emotion;  but  here, 
too,  we  must  remember  that  it  is  God  of  whom  we  speak. 
We  must  eliminate,  therefore,  everything  which  in  the 
love  of  men  is  too  distinctly  human.  That  God  in  His 
personal  relation  to  us,  His  dust-born  creatures,  who  are 
but  as  a  speck  of  dust  in  the  sunlight,  is  Love — that  He 


38    THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

loves  us,  despite  our  sins,  loves  us  sinners  in  His  Son — 
this  must  be  divinely  and  not  humanly  understood.  Only 
too  often  in  the  history  of  the  Christian  world  has  the 
love  of  God  been  far  too  humanly  understood.  It  has 
in  consequence  been  obscured  by  the  severity  of  His 
moral  judgments  and  the  pressure  of  adversity;  it  has 
been  forgotten  that  God  is  holy  Love,  eternal  Love.  Still 
further,  the  love  of  God  has  only  too  often  been  in- 
terpreted as  the  equivalent  of  human  love.  That  God 
loves  us  as  individuals,  i.e.,  that  He  knows  and  desires 
to  have  each  one  of  us,  that  He  wishes  to  lead  each  one 
of  us  to  an  eternal  goal,  that  He  (and  here  we  touch  at 
its  very  heart  the  divine  love  for  man)  desires  us  indi- 
vidually, not  only  as  means  to  a  further  end,  as  the  crown 
of  His  creation  (who  will,  therefore,  perish  when  they 
shall  have  served  their  purpose  as  a  means),  but  that 
He  desires  us  as  ends,  that  He  takes  us  up  into  His  own 
eternal  purpose,  thereby  separating  us  from  the  perish- 
able and  exalting  us  to  be  eternal  beings,  ever  blessed  in 
His  fellowship.  This  is  what  we  mean  when  we  confess 
Him,  the  Eternal  Power,  as  Eternal  Love — when  we  con- 
fess the  Almighty  as  the  Father.  Thus  we  endeavor,  very 
inadequately  indeed,  but,  as  far  as  we  are  able,  to  set 
forth  the  fullness  of  that  which  is  embraced  in  the  decla- 
ration with  which  the  Creed  of  Christianity  opens — I  be- 
lieve in  the  almighty  Father. 

This  sublime  announcement  has  come  down  to  us 
from  ancient  times,  but  the  passing  centuries  have  de- 
tracted nothing  from  it.  As  our  fathers  in  the  past,  so 
their  descendants  in  the  present,  delight  in  making  this 
confession,  so  full  of  imperishable  truth,  which  shall  abide 
in  undiminished  energy  to  all  eternity. 

No  natural  science  can  disturb  the  security  of  this 
confession.  Without  anger,  without  reviling,  with  a 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED          39 

smile,  we  look  from  the  profound  depths  of  eternal  real- 
ity upon  those  who  oppose  to  our  proclamation  of  faith 
the  pretended  results  of  modern  research  in  the  field  of 
natural  science.  We  Christians  regard  all  honest  investi- 
gation of  nature  with  respect  and  accept  its  results  with 
gratitude.  All  study  of  nature  whose  only  aim  is  to  be- 
come acquainted  with  the  facts  of  nature  as  they  really 
are,  we  Christians  regard  as  a  thinking  of  the  great 
thoughts  of  the  Creator  after  Him ;  a  serving,  not  of  the 
devil,  but  of  God  Himself.  But  those  who  patch  to- 
gether a  conception  of  the  universe  out  of  the  elements 
of  natural  science,  and  construct  a  faith  out  of  the  knowl- 
edge gained  through  the  reason  and  senses,  we  leave  to 
their  sublime  simplicity. 

No  historical  research  can  weaken  this  confession. 
Not  that  we  could  dispense  with  history.  Our  faith  in 
God  itself  has  developed  from  the  history  of  divine  reve- 
lation, and  finds  in  it  its  imperishable  and  ever-new 
foundation.  We  are  well  aware  of  the  industrious  labors 
of  those  who  honestly  imagine  that  they  can  by  their 
scientific  historical  studies  uproot  our  faith  in  Him  in 
whom  the  Almighty  Father  has  revealed  Himself  to  us. 
But  we  know  them  thoroughly,  know  what  is  their  final 
impelling  motive.  While  imagining  that  they  are  judging 
historically,  they  judge  dogmatically,  no  less  absolutely 
bound  in  their  secular  belief  than  the  sons  of  Rome  are 
bound  in  their  ecclesiastical  belief. 

In  truth — unbroken  and  unshaken  stands  to-day,  as  of 
old,  the  Creed  of  Christendom,  declaring,  "I  believe  in  the 
Almighty  Father" — a'  light  shining  in  a  dark  place  until 
the  day  dawn.  But  we  who  live  in  this  light — by  grace 
alone  without  any  merit  of  our  own,  and,  therefore,  with- 
out Pharisaic  claims ;  sustained  in  it  by  eternal  truth,  and, 
therefore,  without  fanaticism — we  rest  securely  in  this 


40  THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

utterance  of  simple  faith.  Our  souls  find  in  it  a  great 
comfort  and  great  strength  in  good  and  evil  days,  in  life 
as  in  death.  We  rest  in  it  as  children  in  the  Father's 
bosom. 


CHAPTER  III 
Maker  of  Heaven  and  Earth 

BY  DR.  K.  DUN  KM  AN 

PROFESSOR  OF  SYSTEMATIC  AND  PRACTICAL  THEOLOGY   AT  GREIFSWALD 

"In  the  beginning  God  created  heaven  and  earth." 
The  first  article  of  the  Creed  places  us  at  once  face 
to  face  with  the  fundamental  testimony  of  God  to  Him- 
self, face  to  face  with  the  Creation,  in  order  that  we  may 
clearly  know  what  a  great  and  mighty  God  we  have, 
whose  eternal  power  and  Godhead  we  are  to  learn  from 
His  works.  (Rom.  i  :  20.)  In  thus  locating  us,  this  arti- 
cle also  places  us  at  the  same  time  face  to  face  with  the 
first  word  of  "revelation,"  which  is  also  a  creation — a 
new  and  glorious  creation  in  the  midst  of  the  old,  i.e., 
"In  the  beginning  God  created  heaven  and  earth."  With- 
out this  announcement  of  Scripture  we  would,  despite 
all  the  grandeur  and  power  of  the  Creation,  yet  fail  to 
recognize  the  Creator.  As  it  is,  both  Creation  and  Reve- 
lation extend  a  welcoming  hand  to  us  in  this  article. 

If  we  consider  the  matter  carefully,  it  will  be  evident 
that  Creation  alone  without  Revelation  is  a  book  with 
seven  seals;  and  likewise  Revelation,  without  the  Crea- 
tion upon  which  it  rests  and  in  which  it  is  rooted,  is  with- 
out foundation  or  goal.  But  it  is  of  the  greatest  ad- 
vantage for  us  that  Revelation  is  based  upon  the  firm 
foundation  of  Creation;  for  it  thus  brings  Creation  be- 
fore our  vision,  opens  our  eyes  to  see  it,  and  preserves 
us  from  all  fanaticism,  which  is  so  prone  to  gaze  into  the 

41 


42  THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

sky  and  forget  the  Creation  of  the  olden  time.  But  no! 
It  behooves  us  to  stand  still  and  meditate  upon  the  very 
first  sentence  of  the  Scriptures,  for  there  is  in  it  much,  in- 
conceivably much,  to  think  of  and  meditate  upon.  The 
first  sentence  of  the  Bible  is  also  the  weightiest  and  most 
powerful. 

"In  the  beginning."  What  an  utterance  is  this!  It 
asserts  that  when  there  was  as  yet  no  beginning,  then 
the  beginning  of  all  beginnings  was  made.  When  there 
was  as  yet  no  time  nor  space,  when  there  was  no  matter 
and  no  force,  when  there  were  as  yet  no  thoughts  nor 
ideas  shrewdly  wrought  out  by  human  brains,  when  there 
was  only  One,  the  eternal  and  in  Himself  all-sufficient 
God,  the  only  blessed  and  mighty  One — then  it  came  to 
pass. 

What  came  to  pass?  Creation.  This  little  word  is  no 
less  abyssmal  than  the  former,  "In  the  beginning."  It 
very  naturally  follows  the  word  "God,"  for  it  means 
the  calling  forth  of  something  from  nothing.  Only  the 
living  God  can  create.  Or  will  anyone  maintain  that 
we  men,  too,  can  create  ?  We  may  be  able  to  form  after, 
to  copy;  we  may  recast  old  material  at  hand  into  new 
forms.  But  when  we  do  so,  these  forms,  like  the  various 
styles  of  art,  are,  after  all,  but  endless  reproductions  of 
ancient  models.  Upon  our  human  arts  we  have  ourselves 
passed  the  judgment:  There  is  nothing  new  under  the 
sun,  and  all  things  that  are  have  already  been.  Oh !  how 
trivial,  how  pitiably  small  are  in  reality  all  the  boasted 
creations  of  man;  and  how  we  all  breathe  more  freely 
when  a  really  great  artist,  mechanic  or  thinker  speaks 
of  his  handiwork  as  insignificantly  small  compared  with 
the  great  Creation.  Yea,  truly,  there  is  only  One  who 
ever  has  created  or  can  create.  And  since  this  is  so,  His 
creative  work  is  a  wonder-working  beyond  compare. 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED          43 

"Thou  art  the  God  who  doest  wonders."  The  work  of 
Creation  is  the  greatest  of  all  marvels — the  miracle  of 
miracles.  "Wonderful  are  thy  works."  (Ps.  139  :  14.) 
It  is  a  wonderful  manifestation  of  God's  power  that  He 
alone  can  "create  a  new  thing  in  the  earth."  (Jer.  31  :  22.) 
Hence,  God  creates  without  the  help  of  any  other,  and 
without  any  tool;  He  creates  out  of  Himself,  out  of  His 
fullness  of  life.  He  only  needs  to  "speak  and  it  is  done." 
"His  word"  is  His  tool ;  and  by  this  we  do  not  mean  that 
His  word  is  a  magical  incantation,  but  that  God  has  life 
in  Himself  and  needs  only  to  wish  or  to  command  and  all 
is  done  as  He  would  have  it.  This  is  His  "absolute 
omnipotence,"  of  which  the  fathers  spoke.  We  children 
of  men  have  some  little  conception  of  this,  but  only  so 
much  as  enables  us  to  speak  and  stammer  of  the  omnipo- 
tence of  God.  It  makes  us  fairly  shudder  when  we  read : 
"By  the  word  of  Jehovah  were  the  heavens  made,  and 
all  the  host  of  them  by  the  breath  of  His  mouth."  Where 
does  He  appear  more  exalted,  more  truly  divine  than 
in  this  creative  work?  When  the  prophets  address  Him 
or  speak  of  Him,  they  call  Him  "Jahwe,  the  Lord  of 
heaven  and  earth,"  "the  King  above  all  the  kingdoms  of 
the  earth." 

Then  we  have  the  final  words  of  the  article :  "Heaven 
and  earth."  These,  again,  mean  much  more  than  our 
"modern"  wisdom  can  understand.  The  words  are  meant 
to  include  not  only  the  heavens  above  us  and  the  earth 
beneath  us,  but  "things  visible  and  things  invisible, 
whether  thrones  or  dominions  or  principalities  or  pow- 
ers" (Col.  i  :  16)  ;  in  short,  the  two  realms  of  a  super- 
earthly  and  an  earthly  world.  But  the  emphasis  is 
placed  upon  the  latter,  and  although  the  super-earthly 
realm  is  peopled  with  holy  beings  and  heavenly  forms, 
yet  it  is  not  these,  but  we  men — we  poor  men  upon  this 


44          THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

little  earth,  who  are  the  "crown  of  Creation" — for  whom 
all  these  things  have  been  created.  This  is  made  mani- 
fest so  wonderfully  in  the  biblical  account  of  the  Crea- 
tion— not  only  in  that  God  created  man  last  of  all,  but 
especially  in  the  fact  that  after  creating  man  He  created 
nothing  more.  "Beyond  man  God  does  not  exert  His 
creative  power"  (von  Hoffmann).  He  now  rests  from 
His  works,  not  as  though  He  needed  to  rest,  but  because 
He  has  attained  His  end  and  now  invites  the  men  created 
to  enter  into  His  rest.  (Heb.  4:4.) 

But  this  is  the  rest  of  God,  that  the  whole  Creation 
shall  ring  aloud  with  the  Creator's  praise.  "The  heavens 
declare  the  glory  of  God  and  the  firmament  showeth  His 
handiwork."  God  desires  no  lifeless  rest.  He  wishes  to 
hear  His  praises  sounding  forth  in  all  places.  There  is 
no  sweeter  rest  on  earth  than  that  beneath  the  rolling 
choral  in  the  crowded  temple  of  God,  in  which  all  voices 
rise  and  the  heavenly  hosts  appear  to  join  in  harmony. 
The  whole  Creation  is  designed  to  be  like  such  a  glorious 
cathedral ;  and  the  congregation  within  it  comprises  all 
who  live  and  move  and  have  their  being.  The  cherubim 
and  seraphim,  the  morning  stars  above  and  the  flowers 
beneath,  mountains  and  valleys,  plants  and  animals — 
all  should  leap  and  praise  and  shout  for  joy  to  "the  Lord 
who  made  them."  So  long  as  the  Creation  does  not  do 
so,  it  is  not  a  right  Creation.  Something  is  out  of  order 
in  it,  and  it  must  be  corrected ;  it  cannot  remain  as  it  is. 
The  omnipotence  of  God  must  and  shall  make  it  new 
and  different.  "Behold,"  says  the  Lord  already  under 
the  old  covenant  through  Isaiah,  "I  will  make  a  new 
heaven  and  a  new  earth."  Thus  we  see  that  the  Creation 
embraces  in  itself  the  new  creation — that  creation,  re- 
demption and  sanctification  are  only  stages  in  the  one 
great  work  of  divine  power  and  mercy. 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED          45 

But  when  we  thus  pass  in  review  the  entire  unique 
biblical  doctrine  of  Creation,  must  we  not  confess  that 
we  have  wandered  very  far  from  it  ?  It  makes  a  distinct 
difference  between  the  Creator  and  the  creature,  and  this 
modern  thought  will  not  at  all  allow.  The  latter  seeks, 
on  the  contrary,  to  bind  the  two  inseparably  together, 
speaking  of  a  "Nature"  which  begets  itself — natura 
naturans.  It  writes  of  the  "natural  history  of  Creation" 
(Haeckel).  Even  the  most  absurd  ideas  of  a  magical 
"development,"  which  produces  from  matter  the  spirit 
of  man,  are  pressed  into  the  service  of  the  "modern  an- 
tagonism to  the  Creator"  (Baer). 

And  even  modern  theologians  themselves  have  come 
to  cherish  a  strange  aversion  to  this  sublime  article  of  the 
Creation  of  heaven  and  earth.  They  are  so  ready  to 
speak  of  it  as  "cosmological  speculation,"  wholly  un- 
fruitful and  even  injurious  to  true  piety.  Instead  of  the 
Creation  of  the  world  accomplished  by  the  act  of  God, 
has  come  the  curious  idea  of  a  simple  dominion  over  the 
world  which  God  possesses,  and  which  we  men  are  per- 
mitted, with  the  help  of  God,  to  exercise.  Whatever  goes 
beyond  this  is  supposed  to  come  of  evil.  There  is  such 
a  boundless  respect  for  the  modern  natural  science,  which 
is  supposed  to  have  really  dethroned  God  and  cast  Him 
out  of  His  own  Creation,  and  in  place  of  the  wonderful 
world  which  He  has  made  erected  the  cold  and  empty 
"mathematico-mechanical  conception  of  the  world";  in 
place  of  the  revelation  of  life  full  of  wonders  and  of 
energy,  the  "celestial  mechanism"  and  bloodless  arith- 
metical formulas — that  everything  which  savors  in  any 
way  of  the  ancient  "myth  of  Creation"  has  been  deliber- 
ately eliminated  from  dogmatics.  And  the  sudden  pov- 
erty which  has  been  the  immediate  result  has  not  even 
been  observed.  Man,  it  must  be  remembered,  is  such  a 


46          THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

curious  creature,  that  he  regards  any  idea  originating 
in  his  own  mind,  however  shallow  and  perverted  it  may 
be,  as  a  thousandfold  more  valuable  and  precious  than  a 
real  treasure  which  he  must  accept  as  a  gift  from  without. 
Any  "creation"  of  his  own,  though  it  be  but  a  pallicl 
theory  or  some  mechanical  construction  without  spirit  or 
life,  like  a  modern  moving  picture  show,  appears  incom- 
parably grander  than  all  the  wonderful  works  of  God. 

Yet,  for  the  modern  man,  within  the  last  two  hundred 
years,  the  word  Creation  has  come  to  mean  very  much 
more  than  for  those  of  earlier  generations.  The  immen- 
sity and  fullness  of  Creation,  or  of  the  universe,  or 
"Nature,"  has  been  revealed  to  our  generation  to  an  ex- 
tent undreamed  of  and  of  which  our  fathers  could  have 
had  no  conception.  The  ancients  spoke  of  "heaven  and 
earth,"  and  knew  scarcely  more  about  either  than  that 
shining  stars  roamed  through  the  heavens  and  that  liv- 
ing creatures  in  great  number  and  variety  moved  about 
over  the  surface  of  the  earth.  But  we — we  know  all 
about  the  heavens  and  the  earth!  Gigantic  telescopes 
have  opened  to  our  view  the  darkest  depths  of  the  uni- 
verse, and  modern  science,  by  the  help  of  wonderful  in- 
struments like  the  spectroscope,  has  brought  down  within 
our  range  the  most  distant  celestial  bodies.  At  the  same 
time,  we  have  become  infinitely  better  acquainted  with 
old  Mother  Earth.  We  are  not  only  familiar  with  its 
surface  from  pole  to  pole;  we  not  only  have  charted  the 
hitherto  unexplored  regions  of  the  continents  of  Africa 
and  Central  Asia,  but  we  have  fathomed  the  deepest 
crevices  of  the  rocks,  and  are  as  familiar  with  the  history 
of  the  earth  extending  through  millions  of  years  as  with 
the  course  of  our  own  lives. 

And  in  connection  with  this  exploration  of  nature,  or 
the  Creation,  which  is  so  far  removed  from  any  con- 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED          47 

ception  of  the  ancients,  the  peculiarly  modern  science,  i.e., 
natural  science,  has  grown  great  and  powerful.  The 
human  race  has  lived  to  see  wonder  upon  wonder.  New 
and  undreamed  of  realms  of  fact  and  of  life  have  been 
constantly  revealed  to  it.  Even  the  number  of  the 
sciences  which  participate  in  the  investigation  of  nature 
can  scarcely  be  counted,  and  it  is  constantly  increasing. 
The  Creation  is  so  immensely  rich  that  new  fields  of 
labor  are  ever  opening  up  for  its  exploration.  Fields 
which  were  at  first  the  smallest  and  most  insignificant 
expand  so  rapidly ,  that  they  must  be  subdivided.  The 
Creation  has  for  us  become  inexhaustible !  In  the  study 
of  it,  we  must  not  only  from  year  to  year  learn  what  we 
had  never  known,  but  we  must  also  be  ever  rectifying 
our  knowledge  and  proposing  new  "hypotheses"  in  place 
of  the  old. 

That  which  proves  to  be  immeasurable  and  inexhaust- 
ible comes  to  have  a  distinct  element  of  the  mysterious 
and  almost  terrible.  Thus  the  Creation  stands  before  us 
an  insoluble  riddle,  a  Sphinx.  We  grope  around  in  the 
chaos,  seeking*  order  and  "laws."  We  scarcely  begin  to 
think  we  have  found  some  such  laws  when  we  are  com- 
pelled to  discredit  them,  and  yet  we  cannot  shake  off  the 
overwhelming  conviction  that  we  are  living  in  the  midst  of 
a  mighty  order,  which  holds  sway  over  an  inexhaustible 
supply  of  material.  Where  are  the  laws  that  govern  the 
universe  ?  Who  makes  them  ?  We  scarcely  seem  to  have 
discovered  them,  when  they  elude  our  grasp  and  vision. 
On  the  one  hand,  the  substantial  presence  of  simple 
lifeless  matter  in  its  amazing  variety,  combinations  and 
energy!  On  the  other,  the  still  more  amazing  spectacle 
of  living  things  with  their  endless  variations  of  kind  and 
type,  of  species  and  individuals!  How  many  minds  are 
wearing  themselves  out  year  after  year  in  the  attempt  to 


48          THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

comprehend  it  all,  and  yet  succeed  only  in  reaching  an 
ever  more  profound  conviction  that  it  is  all  incompre- 
hensible ! 

But  all  this  is  still  not  the  most  enigmatical  feature  of 
this  riddle  of  Creation.  This  we  find  only  in  ourselves — 
human  beings,  who  are  also  children  of  this  great  Crea- 
tion, of  Nature.  Our  history,  our  personal  inner  life,  our 
social  spiritual  fellowship  overwhelm  us  with  special 
questions  and  problems.  "Heaven  and  earth" — and  in 
the  midst  of  them  man — who  can  comprehend  the  bound- 
less range  of  existences,  who  solve  the  fathomless  depths 
of  the  problems  which  they  contain? 

"Creation"  we  reverently  call  it,  and  feel  ourselves,  as 
modern  men,  so  infinitely  small  in  comparison.  The  day 
has  gone  by  when  a  too  hasty  "science"  could  satisfy 
us  with  its  brief  explanation,  "Force  and  Matter";  or 
with  the  yet  briefer  term,  "Energy."  And  although  to- 
day such  formulas  and  watchwords  are  still  heard,  they 
only  serve  to  deceive  the  blind,  ignorant  multitude;  in 
the  circles  of  serious  investigators  they  merely  cause  a 
smile.  What  has  become  of  the  followers  of  Diderot  and 
La  Mettrie,  Biichner  and  Moleschott?  And  where  will 
be  the  present  followers  of  Haeckel  and  Ostwald?  Up 
to  the  present  day  the  Creation  itself  has  always  cor- 
rected, overturned,  or,  with  light  hand,  pushed  aside  all 
the  theories  of  men.  We  have  had  a  surfeit  of  theories 
and  are  tired  of  them  all.  The  actual  truth  in  them  is 
but  as  a  drop  in  the  bucket.  But  the  spirit  of  the  modern 
age,  as  it  is  revealed  in  confessions  of  the  learned,  in  the 
words  and  songs  of  poets,  in  the  creations  of  artists,  is  a 
sense  of  awe  like  that  of  Goethe  in  presence  of  the  in- 
exhaustible realities  of  the  universe,  and  a  mournful 
and  gentle  skepticism  which  from  the  ever-broadening 
and  deepening  research  garners  only  new  impulses  to 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED          49 

persevere,  new  admiration  and  astonishment. 

Creation — the  word  has  fascinated  us  and  we  cannot 
escape  from  it.  But  do  we  also  speak  of  the  Creator? 
Alas,  no !  We  neither  use  the  word  nor  hear  it  uttered. 
How  does  it  happen?  Why  does  the  modern  man  not 
venture  to  speak  of  the  Creator  ?  Modern  science  knows 
nothing  of  God;  it  does  not  know  Him.  Shall  we  cast 
this  up  to  it  as  a  reproach?  That  would  be  rash  and 
foolish ;  for  it  can  in  fact  no  longer  be  denied  that  Nature 
as  such  does  not  lead  us  to  God.  Yes,  it  might  if  it  were 
not  for  our  sins  and  blindness !  The  Creation  does  not 
really  lead  immediately  to  the  Creator,  however  nearly 
the  words  may  be  related.  There  is  between  them  a 
chasm  so  wide  and  deep  that  no  bridge  of  the  understand- 
ing, with  its  deceptive  syllogisms,  can  lead  across  it.  No 
instrument,  not  even  the  most  gigantic  telescope,  can 
reveal  in  the  infinite  the  Creator.  The  Creation  stands 
revealed  before  us  and  may  be  grasped  by  all  the  senses, 
but  the  Creator — He  is,  after  all,  a  "hidden  God."  Reve- 
lation alone  proclaims  Him. 

Because  we  no  longer  have  regard  for  revelation,  be- 
cause it  no  longer  is  for  us  an  equally  potent  and  yet  more 
potent  reality  than  nature,  the  Creator  remains  to  us  un- 
known. We  have  only  a  dim,  persistent  presentiment  which 
we  cannot  shake  off,  but  certainly  we  can  never  attain. 
Therefore  it  is  the  very  first  declaration  of  revelation, 
and  the  very  first  declaration  of  the  ancient  Confession  of 
the  Christian  faith,  that  we  must  learn  to  say  with  rever- 
ence, "Creator  of  heaven  and  earth." 

But  how  do  we  arrive  at  this  knowledge — or,  rather, 
this  faith?  We  must  first  inquire  how  it  can  have  come 
to  pass  that  we  do  not  recognize  the  Creator  in  Creation. 
In  ourselves  must  be  found  the  reason  that  Creation  is 
not  for  us  an  immediate  revelation  of  the  Creator,  since 


50          THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

it  is  such  for  the  "sons  of  God"  in  the  book  of  Job,  and 
for  the  Psalmists  in  their  "psalms  of  nature."  And  it  cer- 
tainly is  found  in  us,  as  all  knowledge  of  the  actual 
depends  upon  us  and  our  ability  to  know.  What,  indeed, 
do  we  know  of  "Nature,"  except  what  forces  itself  upon 
and  clings  to  our  senses  and  our  understanding?  If  we 
had  other  organs  of  sense,  we  would  certainly  see  and 
feel  very  differently  than  we  do  now.  How  may  the 
world  apear  to  the  spirit  of  a  more  highly  organized  be- 
ing than  man?  We  know  only  so  far  as  we  are  capable 
of  seeing  and  deciding.  If  we  now,  with  all  our  research 
and  scholarship,  can  get  no  farther  than  the  conviction  of 
the  incomprehensibly  mysterious;  if  we  cannot  succeed 
in  the  discovery  of  a  "unity"  or  "harmony"  in  the  entire 
scope  of  the  universe — is  not  the  reason  to  be  found  in 
ourselves  ?  If  we  had  another  eye,  a  spirit  of  a  different 
sort  than  we  have  by  nature,  we  would  certainly  recog- 
nize the  universe  in  its  vast  inner  harmony  and  as  a  work 
of  the  living  God. 

If  we  now  can  see  nothing  but  enigmas  and  contra- 
dictions, this  proves  only  the  enigmatical  nature  of  our 
own  being.  We  transfer  to  the  world  the  enigmas  of 
our  existence,  the  contradictions  of  our  own  nature. 
We  lack  the  "single  eye,"  the  inner  unity  and  the  harmony 
which  are  needful  in  order  that  the  stars  might  speak  to 
us  the  language  which  he  speaks  to  whom  his  God 
has  already  given  inner  harmony  and  unity  of  nature. 
Psalmists  and  prophets  praise  the  God  who  has  given 
them  the  light  and  life  which  they  lacked  before,  and 
now  they  look  upon  the  works  of  Creation  and  behold 
again  the  mighty  order  and  sublime  unity  of  them  all, 
recognize  the  God  of  their  salvation  in  His  voiceless 
works.  The  lilies  of  the  field  now  speak  of  God  who 
clothes  them  more  wonderfully  than  Solomon  in  all  his 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED          51 

glory.  Now,  the  sweet  singer  sings  of  the  delight  which 
fills  his  heart  as  he  looks  upon  the  gorgeous  summer, 
and  he  calls  upon  heaven  and  earth  to  celebrate  with 
him  the  glory  of  God,  since  the  heart  of  man  is  too  poor 
and  weak  to  sing  a  worthy  hymn  of  praise. 

It  is  our  fault  that  we  do  not  see  the  Creator,  because 
we  always  see  only  ourselves  and  our  own  inward  dis- 
harmony in  everything  about  us.  The  only  "unity" 
which  we  may  yet  appear  to  possess  is  a  "unity  of  rea- 
son," a  pitiable,  empty  unity  without  any  substantial 
content,  a  mere  figure.  And  what  could  there  be  for  us 
in  such"  a  conception  of  the  world  as  the  philosophers 
have  been  constantly  proclaiming  and  the  "Monists" 
now  hold  up  for  our  admiration?  Where  hides  the  true 
harmony  which  will  clear  up  all  the  riddles  and  contradic- 
tions of  our  own  lives,  the  problems  of  our  personal 
history  ?  True  unity  must  prevail  in  the  innermost  center 
of  our  personal  life,  the  unendurable  conflict  there  must 
cease — then  will  Creation  also  become  light  around  us 
and  our  whole  life,  with  all  its  varying  experiences,  will 
lose  its  terrors. 

We  recognize  this  inner  strife,  for  the  revelation  of 
God  has  opened  our  eyes  to  it.  That  revelation  has 
taught  us  to  look  within  before  we  look  about  us.  It 
has  shown  us  our  sins.  Sin  is  the  profound  contradic- 
tion in  our  own  nature.  Sinners  cannot  recognize  God, 
cannot  recognize  the  Creator  even  in  the  Creation.  They 
shake  their  heads  and  doubt  and  cavil.  They  see  every- 
where only  the  reflected  image  of  their  own  distracted 
lives.  Hence  the  "heathen"  know  not  God,  although 
surrounded  and  sustained  by  the  works  of  His  hand. 
Yet,  having  still,  even  in  their  state  of  sin,  a  living  testi- 
mony to  God  in  their  consciences,  they  people  all  nature 
with  spirits  and  demons.  Modern  man  has  banished 


52          THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

these  demons  from  the  world,  but  that  same  world,  now 
utterly  soulless,  turns  its  vacant  stare  upon  him.  Yet 
how  easily,  having  nothing  to  which  he  can  cling,  he,  with 
all  his  natural  science,  falls  back  into  blind  and  stupid 
superstition!  Spiritism  and  Occultism  are  the  strange 
accompaniments  of  this  boasted  modern  natural  science. 
It  cannot  be  otherwise.  In  our  sirifulness,  the  eye  of 
God  looks  directly  upon  us;  it  is  an  eye  which  sees  us, 
but  which  we  do  not  see.  We  only  feel  and  know  that 
we  are  seen,  and,  like  Adam  in  Paradise,  we  hide  our- 
selves. Now  even  Paradise  no  longer  speaks  to  us  of  the 
Creator.  There  is  only  a  mysterious  rustling  in  the 
branches. 

But  when  once  the  revelation  of  God  in  Christ  has 
come  to  us,  has  revealed  to  us  our  sins  and  with  them 
free  forgiveness — the  former  lodged  in  the  depths  of 
our  own  nature  and  the  latter  flowing  from  out  the  depths 
of  the  divine  mercy;  when  we  have  thus  attained  har- 
mony within,  found  peace  with  God,  and  the  riddle  of 
our  own  life  has  been  explained — then,  oh,  then,  we 
can  look  up  to  heaven  and  about  us  on  the  earth  with 
quite  different  eyes.  All  things  now  speak  to  us  a  dif- 
ferent language.  "The  heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God, 
and  the  firmament  showeth  his  handiwork."  The  Crea- 
tion has  cast  off  its  mask  and  proclaimed  the  solution  of 
its  riddle;  for  we  have  found  the  Creator  through  the 
revelation  which  He  has  given  us. 

What  does  the  Creation  tell  us  now?  It  speaks  of  the 
uninterrupted  and  eternal  activity  of  the  God  who  de- 
sires and  seeks  the  salvation  of  His  creatures.  It  tells 
not  of  blind  and  mute  laws,  of  "brazen  eternities."  but 
of  a  wonderful  directive  activity  and  governance  of  God, 
who  never  loses  sight  of  His  great  final  aim.  "My  Father 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED          53 

worketh,  and  I  work  also."  This  is  the  saving  activity 
of  the  Creator,  who  makes  all  created  things  minister  to 
the  completion  of  His  work  of  redemption;  for  redemp- 
tion is  the  final  aim  of  the  ways  of  God,  that  which  He 
has  always  in  view  in  His  government  of  the  world.  In 
harmony  with  this  is  Paul's  explanation  of  the  "import" 
of  all  events,  even  those  which  we  cannot  understand: 
"Having  determined  their  appointed  seasons  and  the 
bounds  of  their  habitation."  (Rom.  17  :26.)  What  is 
here  said  of  the  nations  and  of  human  life  is  true  also 
of  all  that  comes  to  pass  in  heaven  and  on  earth.  We 
cannot  understand  this,  for  so  many  things  occur  which 
indicate  rather  a  blind,  unfeeling  fate  than  a  Father  in 
heaven  whose  heart  is  interested  above  all  things  in  re- 
demption. And  yet  it  is  really  so.  And  does  not  re- 
demption point  to  another  and  "higher"  world?  We  are 
not  to  feel  too  much  at  home  here  below,  in  this  Crea- 
tion ;  but  through  it  we  should  learn  to  bear  ever  in  mind 
that  our  "conversation,"  i.e.,  our  citizenship,  is  above. 
Hence,  the  great  catastrophes  of  nature,  the  dark  epi- 
sodes of  history,  and  the  experiences  of  our  personal  lives 
are  not  in  contradiction  of  the  great  redemptive  aim  of 
God.  Toward  that  consummation  He  works  ceaselessly 
and  unweariedly.  He  is  working  out  at  the  "humming 
loom  of  time"  not  only  His  own  divine  pattern,  but  the 
redemption,  the  salvation  of  the  world.  As  the  visible 
Creation  is  not  in  itself  eternal,  but  only  a  created  world, 
it  must  sometime  cease  to  be,  and  a  "new  heavens  and  a 
new  earth"  arise.  There,  far  otherwise  than  in  the 
present  world,  the  work  shall  praise  its  Ruler.  There  we 
shall  profess  allegiance  far  otherwise  than  here  below, 
and  praise  the  Creator  with  voices  a  thousandfold  more 
rich  and  full,  for  there  no  tear  will  longer  dim  the  eye, 
no  sin  will  imprison  the  powers  of  the  soul  and  drive  it 


54          THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

hither  and  thither,  restless  and  far  from  God  in  the  very 
midst  of  His  Creation. 

But  until  this  new  heaven  and  new  earth  shall  be  re- 
vealed, we  live  with  joy  and  comfort  in  the  old  structure. 
It  is,  indeed,  a  house  with  many  cracks,  but  it  does  not 
fall  down  upon  us ;  it  holds  us.  A  wonderful  Providence 
rules  our  lives  to  the  minutest  particular,  and  no  hair  of 
our  head  falls  without  the  consent  of  "The  Father." 
How  shall  we  explain  this  ?  How  is  it  possible  ?  Ah  !  we 
know :  "All  things  were  made  by  Him,"  by  Him  who 
died  and  rose  again  for  us.  All  things  exist  "in  Him," 
and  He  "is  before  all."  Thus  Jesus  solves  for  us  the 
riddle  of  the  old  world,  the  riddle  of  Creation.  It  stands 
fast  upon  Him  and  in  Him.  That  is  enough  for  us.  That 
enables  us  to  feel  somewhat  "at  home"  even  in  this 
world.  Had  we  not  Him,  the  world  would  be  and  remain 
a  strange  world  to  us,  as  a  Sphinx  remains  unknown 
and  strange.  But  now  we  have  Him.  Nay,  rather,  He 
has  us,  and  takes  us  by  the  hand  and  shows  us  anew  the 
firmament  above  us  and  the  earth  beneath  our  feet  as 
the  work  of  His  heavenly  Father.  He  teaches  us  to  be- 
lieve, so  that  we  can  with  gratitude  and  rapture  confess, 
"I  believe  in  the  Creator  of  heaven  and  earth." 


CHAPTER  IV 

I  Believe  in  Jesus  Christ,  the  Only-begotten  Son  of  God, 
Our  Lord 

BY  DR.  J.  HAUSSLEITER 

PROFESSOR   OF   NEW   TESTAMENT   EXEGESIS   AT   GREIFSWALD 

These  few  words  embrace  the  entire  substance  of  the 
Christian  faith.  That  we  call  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord  and 
dare  call  upon  His  name, — this  is  our  joy  and  blessedness, 
our  comfort  in  all  trials,  and  our  strength  in  the  battle  of 
life.  He  who  in  faith  has  Jesus  Christ  as  his  Lord,  has 
in  Him  at  the  same  time  the  Father,  and  lives  in  the 
peace  and  fellowship  of  God.  No  one  can  truthfully  say, 
"Lord  Jesus,"  except  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
Thus  this  central  declaration  of  our  faith  involves  a 
recognition  of  the  distinctive  peculiarity  of  the  faith  and 
confession  of  Christianity,  i.e.,  We  believe  in  the  Father 
and  the  Son  and  the  Holy  Spirit.  This  faith  we  confess 
when  we  call  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 

Who  would  ever  be  able,  then,  to  point  out  and  display 
in  a  few  brief  statements  the  inexhaustible  fullness  of 
this  faith?  We  must  content  ourselves  with  a  few  sug- 
gestions, and  shall  begin  with  historical  details. 

The  first  believer  who  confessed  Christ,  whose  con- 
fession Jesus  Himself  approved  and  rewarded  with  far- 
reaching  promises,  was  the  disciple  Simon  Peter.  Jesus 
desires  to  be  recognized  and  confessed  as  the  Christ,  as 
the  Son  of  the  living  God.  This  is  evident  from  the  sig- 
nificant incident  at  Caesarea  Philippi,  which  led  to  Peter's 
confession.  Jesus  is  alone  with  the  twelve.  He  raises 

55 


56    THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

a  question  the  reply  to  which  will  show  whether  the  labor 
which  He  has  up  to  this  time  bestowed  upon  the  disciples 
for  the  development  of  their  faith,  with  untiring  patience 
presenting  to  them  by  word  and  deed  the  God-given  testi- 
mony to  His  character  and  mission,  has  produced  results 
and  attained  the  purpose  which  He  had  in  view  in 
His  intercourse  with  them.  The  incident  is  related  in 
the  three  synoptic  Gospels,  most  fully  by  Matthew.  We 
follow  his  narrative  because  we  do  not,  with  some  critics, 
regard  the  portions  which  go  beyond  the  reports  given  by 
Mark  and  Luke  as  additions  of  a  later  traditional  theol- 
ogy, and  because  we  have  in  Matthew  the  only  exhaustive 
description  by  an  eye-witness.  The  reliability  of  this 
witness  is  not  impaired  by  the  fact  that  we  do  not  have 
the  original  Aramaic  text  of  his  Gospel,  but  only  a  Greek 
translation  of  the  original  text.  According  to  the  unani- 
mous testimony  of  the  three  synoptic  writers,  Jesus  first 
asks  a  preparatory  question.  He  inquires  as  to  the 
opinion  entertained  by  the  multitude  concerning  Himself, 
the  Son  of  man.  (Matt.  16  :  13.)  This  self-assumed 
title  is  to  be  regarded  as  the  subject  in  a  sentence  to  which 
the  appropriate  predicate  is  to  be  attached.  The  "Son  of 
man"  has  revealed  Himself,  i.e.,  the  representative  of  the 
human  race,  who  fulfills  the  task  assigned  to  man,  to 
whom,  therefore,  "nothing  human  is  foreign."  The  term 
must,  however,  be  understood  not  in  the  ancient  classical 
sense,  in  which  humanity  constitutes  a  self-existent,  auton- 
omous cycle  of  being,  but  in  the  scriptural  sense,  which 
locates  the  peculiar  essential  nature  of  man  in  his  divine 
relationship.  As  "Son  of  man,"  He  meets  the  re- 
quirement of  love  to  God  and  man  which  is  made  of 
all  men  by  God,  and  that  of  the  prophet  Micah,  that  a 
man  should  love  kindness  and  walk  humbly  with  his 
God.  What  is  said  now  of  the  "Son  of  man,"  who,  for 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED          57 

the  sake  of  the  service  He  seeks  to  render,  renounces  all 
outward  glory,  and  who,  in  His  homelessness,  is  poorer 
than  the  foxes  and  the  birds?  The  disciples,  in  their 
reply  to  this  question  of  Jesus,  do  not  report  all  the  pos- 
sible opinions  of  people  about  Him,  but  restrict  them- 
selves to  such  as  acknowledge  Him  as  a  prophet,  the 
bearer  of  divine  revelation.  In  the  unselfish  ministry  of 
Jesus,  which  was  combined  with  extraordinary  works  of 
power  and  miraculous  healings,  there  was  recognized 
a  ray  of  divine  light,  and  there  was,  in  consequence,  ac- 
corded to  Him  in  wide  circles  the  rank  of  a  prophet.  But 
do  these  opinions  of  the  people  place  a  proper  estimate 
upon  the  Son  of  man?  Jesus  inquires  further:  "But 
ye — whom  do  ye  say  that  I  am?"  "Simon  Peter  an- 
swered and  said,  Thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the 
living  God." 

This  utterance  marks  the  birth-hour  of  Christian  con- 
fession. Peter  exalts  Jesus  far  above  the  Old  Testament 
prophets.  He  exalts  Him  also  above  the  greatest  of  the 
prophets,  John  the  Baptist,  whose  disciple  he  himself 
had  been.  According  to  the  judgment  of  Peter,  Jesus 
does  not  belong  in  a  class,  or  category,  with  others;  He 
stands  alone  as  the  One  who  completely  fulfills  the  Old 
Testament  prophecies — as  the  One  in  whom  the  fathers 
hoped  and  whose  coming  the  prophets  had  foretold.  He 
is  the  Messiah,  the  One  anointed  of  God;  the  bearer  of 
the  Spirit,  with  whom  God  Himself  has  come  to  His 
people;  the  King  of  the  kingdom,  called  to  establish  the 
divine  government  upon  earth  and  to  bring  the  blessings 
of  the  kingdom  of  God.  As  the  bearer  of  the  Spirit,  He 
stands,  as  no  other  man,  in  fellowship  with  God.  He  is 
the  "Son  of  the  living  God,"  who,  in  the  power  of  the 
Spirit,  utters  divine  life-giving  words  and  performs 
divine  saving  works.  The  "Son  of  man,"  who  exercises 


58          THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

on  earth  the  prerogative  of  the  heavenly  Father  in  the 
forgiveness  of  sins  (Matt.  9  :6),  is  the  "Son  of  God." 
He  is  the  Son  of  God — will  not  become  so  at  some  time 
in  the  future.  The  greatness  of  this  confession  of  Peter 
lies  in  the  fact  that  in  the  previous  works  of  Jesus,  in  His 
self-revelation  in  word  and  deed,  which  others  have 
judged  so  differently,  the  apostle  sees  the  sufficient,  fully- 
authentic  evidence  of  the  Messiahship  and  divine  Son- 
ship  of  Jesus,  because  he  finds  and  recognizes  in  His 
word  the  words  of  God,  in  His  acts  the  acts  of  God,  in 
His  person  the  person  of  God.  He,  therefore,  adds  to 
the  subject,  "Jesus,"  the  highest  predicate  which  can  be 
ascribed,  beyond  which  no  other  can  go.  He  is  con- 
vinced also  that  Jesus  at  the  proper  time  will  manifest  the 
glory  of  the  divine  sovereignty  which  the  Messiah  is  ap- 
pointed to  establish  upon  earth.  To  accomplish  this,  it 
will  only  be  necessary  for  Him  to  continue  in  the  course 
of  self-revelation  which  He  has  hitherto  pursued. 

The  next  step  in  this  direction  was  taken  when  Jesus 
in  the  clearest  terms  acknowledged  upon  His  part  Peter's 
double  confession  of  His  Messiahship  and  divine  Son- 
ship.  But  He  expresses  His  approval  in  such  a  way  as 
to  lay  the  emphasis  upon  the  blessing  which  Peter  shall 
enjoy  in  consequence  of  this  confession.  Jesus,  even  at 
the  moment  when  the  estimate  of  His  own  character  is 
under  discussion,  thinks  of  the  welfare  of  others.  Blessed 
is  he  who  can  confess  as  Peter  has  done.  He  has  come  into 
decisive  touch  with  the  living  God,  has  had  a  blessed 
experience  of  divine  communion  which  is  full  to  over- 
flowing of  salvation  and  blessing.  "Flesh  and  blood  hath 
not  revealed  it  unto  thee,  but  my  Father  who  is  in 
heaven."  The  secret  of  the  person  of  Jesus,  which  the 
Father  alone  knows  (Matt,  u  :2j),  is  revealed  by  the 
Father  to  him  who,  like  Peter,  has  recognized  and  recog- 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED          59 

nizes  in  the  words  and  works  of  Jesus  the  words  and 
works  of  God.  Peter  responded  to  the  drawing  of  the 
Father  to  the  Son  as  manifested  in  the  self-revelation  of 
Jesus.  As  one  truly  "taught  of  God"  (John  6  145),  he 
saw  the  connection  existing  between  the  teaching  and 
miracles  of  Jesus  and  the  revelation  of  God's  love,  and 
thus — far  otherwise  than  the  astonished  multitude  or  the 
reviling  scribes  and  Pharisees — attained  to  the  proper 
conception  of  the  person  of  Jesus,  i.e.,  that  He  is  the 
Son  of  the  living  God. 

This  confession  is,  and  will  for  all  time  remain,  the 
basis  of  the  Christian  Church,  whose  eternal  perpetuity 
is  assured  only  by  its  fidelity  to  this  declaration  of  its 
faith.  Because  Simon  is  the  first  confessor,  he  receives 
from  Jesus  the  name  of  "rock-man."  "Upon  this  rock 
will  I  build  my  Church."  Peter  will  be  the  first  stone, 
to  which  shall  be  attached  the  other  stones  from  the  Jew- 
ish and  the  Gentile  world,  who  will  constitute  the  spiritual 
house  of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  which  shall  with- 
draw from  the  synagogue.  The  promise  of  Jesus  was 
fulfilled  on  Pentecost,  when  Peter's  testimony  to  Him 
who  was  rejected  by  Israel  but  exalted  by  God  to  be 
"both  Lord  and  Christ"  induced  thousands  of  Jews  to 
unite  with  the  Christian  Church ;  and  again,  in  the  house 
of  the  Gentile  centurion  at  Caesarea,  whose  conversion 
and  reception  into  the  Church  was  also  brought  about 
through  the  agency  of  Peter.*  Thus  Peter  holds  a  unique 
place  in  the  initial  period  of  the  Christian  Church,  in 
which  he  can,  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  have  no  successor. 
It  would  be  a  great  mistake  to  cast  doubt  upon  the  his- 
toricity of  the  words  addressed  to  Peter  by  Jesus  on 
account  of  their  abuse  by  the  Roman  Church.  That 


*  Compare  also  i  Pet.  2  : 5. 


60          THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

Matthew  16  :  17-19  was  not  inserted  by  some  Greek  trans- 
lator or  reviser  of  an  Aramaic  Gospel  is  proved  even  by 
the  linguistic  style  of  the  passage,  which  has  from  be- 
ginning to  end  as  strictly  Jewish  a  coloring  as  any  pas- 
sage in  Matthew.  But  the  unmistakable  inner  connec- 
tion of  the  passage  with  verses  22f .  and  other  very  essen- 
tial portions  of  the  section  extending  to  Matthew  20  : 28, 
is  also  an  evidence  that  the  first  author  of  the  book  wrote 
the  verses  17-20.* 

Before  turning  to  the  confession  of  Christ  in  the  first 
Christian  congregation,  we  place  by  the  side  of  Peter's 
confession  that  of  Thomas.  (John  20  :28.)  Between 
the  incident  at  Caesarea  Philippi  and  the  exclamation  of 
Thomas  called  forth  by  the  appearance  of  the  risen  Lord 
lies  the  consummation  of  the  ministry  of  the  Son  of 
man,  who  on  the  cross  "gave  His  life  a  ransom  for 
many,"  but  also  the  collapse  of  the  incipient  faith  of  the 
disciples,  who  took  offence  at  the  cross  and  the  Cruci- 
fied and  fell  into  despair.  It  will  never  be  possible  to 
explain  psychologically  the  sudden  revival  of  the  faith 
of  the  disciples  if  we  deny  the  reality  of  the  resurrec- 
tion of  Jesus  and  His  appearances  to  them.  The  narra- 
tive of  Thomas's  recognition  of  the  Lord  bears  in  itself 
the  evidence  of  its  veracity.  Who  could  have  invented 
and  circulated  such  a  narrative  during  the  life-time  of  the 
apostle?  And  especially  after  his  death,  who,  in  view 
of  the  panegyric  character  of  all  legends  of  the  apostles, 
would  have  ventured  to  ascribe  to  him  such  stubborn- 
ness of  unbelief?  But  the  feature  of  the  experience  of 
Thomas  which  no  one  could  have  invented  was  the  treat- 
ment accorded  him  by  the  risen  Lord.  He  who  well 
knows  the  thoughts  of  the  disciple's  heart  and  his  obsti- 


*  Theodore  Zahn,  Com.  on  Matthew  in  loco. 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED          61 

nate  utterances  does  not  condemn  but  saves  him,  even 
now  in  His  glorified  state  turning  to  him  with  pitying,  re- 
deeming love.  Then  burst  forth  from  the  overflowing 
heart  of  the  disciple,  which  instinctively  connects  its 
earlier  experiences  with  the  present  supreme  moment, 
the  adoring  words,  "My  Lord  and  my  God."  The  first 
martyr,  Stephen,  likewise  worshiped  the  Lord  Jesus. 
They  thus,  however,  did  no  more  than  that  which  was 
always  the  distinguishing  trait  of  the  first  Christian 
Church.  One  of  the  most  frequent  and  widely-prevalent 
titles  by  which  the  early  Christians  were  designated  was, 
"Those  who  call  upon  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ." 

We  hear  it  frequently  said  in  these  days  of  strenuous 
controversy  between  the  adherents  of  the  old  faith  and 
the  new  liberal  tendencies,  that  the  difference  between 
them  cannot  be  briefly  and  clearly  stated,  as  the  boundary 
lines  cross  one  another  and  are  shifting  in  their  char- 
acter. It  has  also  been  maintained  that  the  orthodox 
laity  still  preserve  the  old  naive  attitude  toward  the  Bible 
which  prevailed  before  the  criticalera;  but  that  not  only 
the  modern  liberal  theology,  but  modern  positive  theology 
as  well,  has  without  exception  advanced  beyond  the 
ancient  attitude,  and  that,  therefore,  if  we  are  to  draw 
a  dividing  line  the  latter  must  also  be  placed  upon  the  left 
side.  Such  claims  serve  only  to  veil  the  seriousness  of 
the  conflict  and  mistake  the  point  at  which  it  really  culmi- 
nates, which  is  nothing  more  nor  less  than  the  attitude 
toward  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  The  contestants  part 
from  one  another  upon  the  question:  Can  and  dare  we 
call  upon  the  Lord  Christ  in  prayer?  Is  He  really  the 
Lord,  to  whom  all  power  is  given  in  heaven  and  on  earth, 
who  fulfills  His  promise  that  wherever  two  or  three  are 
gathered  in  His  name  He  is  in  the  midst  of  them?  Is 


62  THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

He  our  Lord,  in  whose  eternally  availing  ministry  of  love 
and  in  whose  eternal  providential  care  we  live?  Is  the 
ancient  petition  of  the  Sunday  liturgy,  "Lord,  have  mercy ; 
Christ,  have  mercy ;  Lord,  have  mercy  upon  us,"  justified, 
or  is  it  to  be  eliminated  in  a  thorough  revision  of  the 
liturgy?  He  who  desires  to  take  a  clear  position  in  the 
confusion  of  our  age  dare  not  pass  by  this  primary  ques- 
tion of  the  Christian  confession.  And  there  can  here  be 
no  compromise,  avoiding  the  necessity  of  a  simple  Yes 
or  a  decided  No.  At  this  point,  those  who  simply  respect 
Jesus  and  true  believers  in  Christ  part  company.  But  the 
latter  have  upon  their  side  the  innumerable  company  of 
Christian  confessors  in  all  ages.  It  is  an  undeniable  fact 
that  the  custom  of  calling  upon  the  name  of  Jesus  is  not 
the  result  of  a  gradual  apotheosis  or  deification  of  Jesus, 
taking  form  in  the  course  of  decades,  but  that  it  appeared 
at  once  at  the  establishment  of  the  Christian  Church.  It 
will  be  worth  while  for  us  to  tarry  for  a  little  at  this  point. 
Among  the  simple  names  by  which  the  early  Christians 
designated  themselves,  such  as  Believers,  Saints,  the 
Church  of  God,  Brethren,  the  title,  "Those  who  call  upon 
the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus,"  held  a  peculiar  place,  as 
marking  the  difference  between  the  belief  in  God  cher- 
ished by  the  Christ-rejecting  synagogue  and  the  belief 
in  God  found  in  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  Jew- 
ish-Christian Church  at  Jerusalem  participated  in  the 
services  of  the  temple  as  well  as  did  the  members  of  the 
synagogue;  but  the  God  upon  whom  they  called  had 
been  made  manifest  in  the  person  of  the  crucified  and 
risen  Jesus  Christ,  who,  exalted  as  Lord  by  God,  claimed 
and  received  the  full  service  of  believers,  even  the  service 
of  prayer.  This  was  not  rendered  in  such  a  way  as  to 
call  upon  Him  as  apart  from  God,  but  as  honoring  the 
Father  by  rendering  to  the  Son  the  honor  of  adoration. 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED    63 

"He  that  honoreth  not  the  Son,  honoreth  not  the  Father 
that  sent  Him."  (John  5  : 23.)  If  the  Creed  is  presented 
in  the  form :  "I  believe  in  God  the  Father  .  .  .  and  in 
Jesus  Christ  His  only  Son,"  the  form  of  expression  may 
have  the  appearance  of  an  addition,  as  though  faith  were 
reposed  first  in  God  and  secondly  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  as 
though  God,  Christ  and  the  Holy  Spirit  were  thought  of 
as  existing  side  by  side,  and  faith  as  also  correspondingly 
threefold.  Nothing  was  further  from  the  worship  of 
the  primitive  Church  than  such  a  misunderstanding.  It 
worshiped  the  One  God,  Creator  of  heaven  and  earth, 
who  was  now  made  manifest  through  His  Son  Jesus 
Christ,  and  who  sent  the  Spirit  to  glorify  Him,  i.e.,  to  im- 
press upon  the  hearts  of  men  the  meaning  of  His  death 
and  exaltation,  and  to  bestow  power  for  the  true  wor- 
ship of  God.  The  historical  revelation  of  God  through 
Christ  in  the  Spirit  was  viewed  and  recognized  as  an 
inner,  living  unity.  Those  who  called  upon  the  name 
of  Jesus  Christ  had  not  surrendered  the  monotheistic 
faith  of  Israel,  but  that  faith  had  received  for  them  a 
fullness  of  living  power  of  which  the  synagogue  in  its 
frigid  conception  of  God  had  no  suspicion. 

The  Scriptures  furnish  us  an  instructive  illustration 
of  the  difference  between  the  worship  of  God  in  the 
synagogue  and  in  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ.  When  the 
rabbi  in  the  pericope  of  the  synagogue  service  read  the 
passage  in  Joel  2  : 32,  "And  it  shall  come  to  pass  that 
whosoever  shall  call  upon  the  name  of  Jehovah  shall  be 
delivered;  for  in  Mount  Zion  and  in  Jerusalem  there 
shall  be  those  that  escape,  as  Jehovah  hath  said,  and 
among  the  remnant  those  whom  Jehovah  doth  call," 
and  in  reading  carefully  avoided  the  sacred  name  in  order 
not  to  profane  it,  pronouncing  instead  of  Jehovah, 
"Adonai,  Lord,"  he  could  appeal  for  the  explanation  of 


64          THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

the  passage  to  nothing  more  than  the  memories  of  the 
great,  powerful  and  terrible  God  of  their  fathers,  who 
had  given  them  rich  and  gracious  promises,  and  he  might 
add  a  prayer  that  God  might  fulfill  His  promises  and  set 
up  a  banner  to  assemble  the  scattered  nation  from  the 
four  corners  of  the  earth.  But  in  the  present,  there  was 
no  sign  of  the  fulfillment  of  the  promise.  Jerusalem  was 
groaning  under  the  oppression  of  the  heathen.  How 
entirely  different  does  this  prophecy  sound  and  how  dif- 
ferent its  interpretation  when  the  apostle  Peter,  in  his 
first  Pentecost  sermon,  or  Paul,  in  his  Epistle  to  the 
Romans,  quoted  the  words  of  Joel  and  gave  joyous  testi- 
mony to  their  fulfillment  in  the  present!  The  day  of 
salvation  has  come ;  God  has  poured  out  His  Spirit  upon 
believers;  His  nearness  can  now  be  personally  experi- 
enced. The  God  of  salvation  proclaimed  by  the  prophets 
has  been  revealed  in  the  Christ  who  came  from  God  and 
has  been  again  exalted  to  His  right  hand.  Whosoever 
now  calls  upon  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  shall 
be  saved.  The  worship  of  Jehovah  enjoined  in  the  law 
and  the  prophets  is  transformed  into  the  calling  upon 
Jesus  Christ.  The  latter  is  as  necessary  and  as  effectual 
as  the  former.  All  who  base  their  trust  for  salvation 
upon  Jesus  and  call  upon  Him  in  faith  become  partakers 
of  salvation  and  experience  the  assurance  of  their  deliv- 
erance. For  Jesus  is  the  Lord,  rich  unto  all  who  call 
upon  Him,  both  Jews  and  Greeks.  Thus,  to  become  a 
Christian  means  to  call  upon  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus. 
The  way  in  which  Peter  and  Paul  independently  repre- 
sent the  above  Old  Testament  prophecy  as  fulfilled  is  a 
striking  illustration  of  the  consistency  and  vividness  of 
the  apostolic  faith.  The  Lord,  the  calling  upon  whom 
brings  man  into  the  possession  of  salvation,  is  Jesus 
Christ.  (Acts  2  :  36  with  v.  21.)  Those  who  call  upon  the 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED          65 

name  of  the  Lord  are  Christians.  When  Ananias  in 
Damascus,  in  prayerful  intercourse  with  Christ,  would 
describe  Saul  as  a  persecutor  of  Christians,  he  says,  "He 
hath  authority  from  the  chief  priests  to  bind  all  that  call 
upon  thy  name."  In  precisely  the  same  way,  the  Chris- 
tians at  Damascus,  when  they  hear  that  Saul  is  preaching 
Christ  in  the  synagogues,  say,  "Is  not  this  he  that  in 
Jerusalem  made  havoc  of  them  that  called  on  this  name  ?" 
Saul  himself  had  meanwhile  become  a  caller  upon  this 
name.  (Acts  22  :  16.)  And  thus  Paul,  in  the  opening 
verses  of  his  First  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  designates 
the  worship  of  Jesus  as  the  distinguishing  trait  of  all 
Christians,  the  bond  of  unity  between  the  widely-scattered 
churches. 

The  basic  confession  of  allegiance  to  Jesus  Christ,  with 
which  the  calling  upon  His  name  was  associated,  was 
made  at  baptism.  This  is  evident  when  Ananias  says 
to  Saul,  "Arise  and  be  baptized,  and  wash  away  thy  sins, 
calling  on  His  name."  The  association  of  the  confession 
of  Christ  with  the  act  of  baptism  is  confirmed  by  the  testi- 
mony of  the  First  Epistle  of  John.  In  the  fourth  chapter 
we  have  in  the  second  verse  the  general  designation  with- 
out any  indication  of  time,  "Every  spirit  that  confess- 
eth,"  and  in  the  fifteenth  verse,  the  more  specific,  "Who- 
soever shall  confess  that  Jesus  is  the  Son  of  God,  God 
abideth  in  him  and  he  in  God."  The  reference  is  here  to 
a  single  definite  act  of  confession,  which  has  been  effect- 
ually preceded  by  the  apostolic  testimony  "that  the  Father 
hath  sent  the  Son  to  be  the  Saviour  of  the  world"  (v.  14). 
Whoever  has  (in  baptism)  made  the  confession  that 
Jesus  is  the  Son  of  God,  in  him  God  abides  and  he  in 
God.  As  the  result  of  the  confession  once  made,  there 
exists  a  permanent  union  of  God  with  the  confessor,  an 
indwelling  of  God  in  the  believer,  which,  according  to 


66          THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

other  passages,  is  associated  with  the  being  "born  of 
God"  (i  John  4  :  7.;  5  :  i),  and  the  new  birth  of  water 
and  Spirit.  (John  3:3,  5.)  The  terms,  confess 
(6(jLo\oyeiv)  and  confession  (6/ioXoyia),  which  became 
at  a  later  day  the  current  designations  of  the  baptismal 
symbol,  appear  to  have  been  preferably  employed  in  this 
sense  already  in  the  days  of  the  apostles.  When  Paul, 
in  Rom.  10  :  10,  declares  that  the  effect  of  confession  by 
the  mouth  is  that  it  ministers  "to  salvation,"  and  presents 
as  the  content  of  confession,  "that  Jesus  is  Lord,"  many 
interpreters  rightly  think  that  he  refers  to  the  baptismal 
confession.  We  recognize  the  same  reference  when  Timo- 
thy is  reminded  of  the  "good  confession"  which  he  "con- 
fessed in  the  sight  of  many  witnesses."  The  author  of 
the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  exhorts  the  persecuted  Chris- 
tians to  whom  he  writes  to  hold  fast  "the  confession." 
(Heb.  4.14.)  As  the  content  of  this  confession  has 
before  been  stated  to  be  "Jesus,  the  Son  of  God,"  we 
have  every  reason  here  also  to  think  of  the  baptismal 
confession.  In  the  text  of  the  Acts  which  Irenaeus 
brought  from  Asia  Minor  in  the  latter  half  of  the  second 
century  stand,  as  the  baptismal  confession  of  the  Eunuch, 
the  words,  "I  believe  that  Jesus  is  the  Son  of  God."* 

The  designation  of  Jesus  as  the  "only-begotten"  Son 
is  derived  from  the  language  employed  by  John.  (John  i  : 
14,  18;  3  :  16,  18;  i  John  4  .-9.)  Jesus  is  the  Son  of  God 
in  an  entirely  unique  sense.  He  was  with  God  before  He 
became  man.  If  we  follow  the  reading  of  John  i  :  13 
which  prevailed  from  the  second  to  the  fourth  century, 
and  which  has  also  left  clear  traces  in  the  ancient  manu- 
scripts of  the  Orient,f  the  verse  expressly  declares,  "He 

*  Compare  Adv.  haer.  III.  12  : 8. 

t  Compare  Zahn's  proof  in  his  Commentary  on  the  Gospel  of 
John. 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED          67 

was  begotten  and  born,  not  from  the  mingling  of  the  blood 
of  two  human  beings,  and  not  from  the  will  of  the  flesh, 
and  not  from  the  will  of  a  man,  but  from  God."  It  is 
sufficient;  however,  in  this  connection,  to  have  referred  to 
this  verse,  so  remarkable  even  in  the  traditional  interpre- 
tation. The  fuller  examination  of  it  belongs  in  the  chap- 
ter which  discusses  the  clause,  "born  of  the  Virgin  Mary." 
"I  believe  in  Jesus  Christ,  the  only-begotten  Son  of 
God  our  Lord."  The  primitive  Christian  Church  had  a 
clear  and  consistent  conception  of  this  article.  It  was  for 
those  early  believers  the  very  central  point  of  the  Chris- 
tian faith.  If  we  penetrate  with  any  degree  of  thorough- 
ness into  the  thought  of  the  First  Epistle  of  John,  we 
will  recognize  the  Trinitarian  character  of  the  faith  which 
announced  its  allegiance  to  Christ  as  the  Son  of  God.  We 
have  already  commented  upon  i  John  4  :  15.  Yet  more 
distinctly  does  the  conclusion  of  the  epistle  set  forth  the 
interlacing  of  the  fellowship  with  God  and  with  Christ. 
"And  we  are  in  him  that  is  true  (i.e.,  in  God),  even  (be- 
cause we  are)  in  his  Son  Jesus  Christ.  This  (i.e.,  the 
God  manifest  in  Jesus  Christ)  is  the  true  God  and  eternal 
life"  (5  :2o).  It  is  a  tremendously  significant  declara- 
tion made  by  John,  and  one  confirmed  by  the  entire  his- 
tory of  the  Church:  "He  that  hath  the  Son  hath  the 
life;  he  that  hath  not  the  Son  of  God  hath  not  the  life" 
(5  :  12).  The  Christian  faith  is  a  having,  a  possessing, 
a  standing  in  the  fellowship  of  God.  A  Christian  is  one, 
as  Paul  expresses  it,  "who  is  in  Christ."  Are  not  these 
declarations  too  large?  Do  they  not  exceed  the  limits 
of  the  humanly  possible?  But  in  faith  there  enters  into 
man  the  power  of  God,  to  which  all  things  are  possible. 
Only  in  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit  can  anyone  be- 
lieve. "He  that  believeth  on  the  Son  of  God  hath  the 
witness  in  him.  .  .  .  And  it  is  the  Spirit  that  beareth  wit- 


68          THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

ness,  because  the  Spirit  is  the  truth."  (i  John  5  :  10,  6.) 
Christians  have  received  the  anointing  from  the  Holy 
One,  and  have  thereby  come  to  "know  all  things"  (2  :  20. 
Observe  the  use  of  the  word  "know"  six  times  in  verses 
13  to  20).  It  is  a  closed  circle  of  divine  realities  into 
which  the  believer  is  transported. 

Who  could  seriously  urge  us  to  surrender  the  faith 
in  Christ  which  displays  its  power  so  wonderfully  in  our 
poverty,  in  times  of  trial,  in  distress,  and  in  the  hour 
of  death,  and  accept  in  exchange  for  it  a  more  or  less 
undefined  glorifying  of  Jesus  which  is  not  effected  by 
the  Holy  Spirit,  but  originates  in  our  own  spirits?  On 
the  contrary,  how  gladly  would  we  help  to  remove  the 
hindrances  to  faith  which  prevent  the  full  acceptance  of 
that  faith  in  Christ  which  has  through  all  ages  of  the 
Church  been  its  very  life !  One  chief  hindrance  has  been 
the  false  notion  that  we  have  to  do  with  a  law  of  faith,  a 
compulsory  belief.  When  the  unmerited  and  incompar- 
ably great  gift  of  God  in  Jesus  Christ  His  Son  is  pro- 
claimed and  offered  to  us,  there  is  presented  to  our  view 
the  simple,  clear,  pure  Gospel,  which  is  far  removed 
from  all  law  and  legal  compulsion,  and  which  can  be 
correctly  understood  only  when  it  is  not  forced  into  any 
legal  categories  such  as  human  reason  devises  in  order 
to  embrace  the  phenomena  of  earthly  history.  The  reve- 
lation of  God  in  Christ!  is  sui  generis,  unique,  and  is  to 
be  measured  by  no  other  rule  than  that  which  it  itself 
furnishes.  Since  it  is  a  reality,  and  can  be  really  experi- 
enced, it  is  also  certainly  a  possibility.  The  sum  of  possi- 
bilities observed  beyond  the  range  of  this  revelation  does 
not  extend  to  it  nor  include  it.  He  who  seeks  to  derive 
it  from  the  sum  of  such  possibilities,  or  limit  it  by  them, 
remains  blind  and  unsusceptible  to  its  real  character 
and  to  the  new  element  which  it  has  introduced  and 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED          69 

offers.  But  his  eyes  are  opened  who  knows  and  con- 
fesses himself  a  poor,  sinful  man,  living  far  from  God 
and  subject  to  death,  and  who  now  hears  the  message 
that  we  may  believe  in  the  miracle  of  the  revelation  of 
the  love  of  God,  who,  in  Christ,  His  Son,  has  given  Him- 
self to  us  to  be  our  Father.  This  is  the  greatest  oppor- 
tunity, the  highest  privilege — from  the  natural  bondage 
of  our  will  and  the  servitude  of  the  flesh  to  be  permitted 
to  attain  the  blessed  liberty  of  the  children  of  God.  To 
such  liberty  are  we  led  by  faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  the  only- 
begotten  Son  of  God,  our  Lord.  For,  as  we  confess  with 
Peter  and  the  Church  of  all  ages,  "In  none  other  is  there 
salvation:  for  neither  is  there  any  other  name  under 
heaven  that  is  given  among  men,  wherein  we  must  be 
saved."  (Acts  4  :  12.) 


CHAPTER  V 
Conceived  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  Born  of  the  Virgin  Mary 

BY  DR.  R.  GRUETZMACHER 

PROFESSOR  OF   SYSTEMATIC   THEOLOGY   AT   ERLANGEN 

When  our  eyes  have  rested  upon  the  trunk  and  crown 
of  a  mighty  oak,  they  involuntarily  fall  to  the  sod  be- 
neath, where  the  great  roots  branch  forth  to  take  firm 
hold  among  the  underlying  rocks.  As  we  wander  upon 
the  shore  of  a  broad  river,  our  thoughts  are  irresistibly 
carried  upward  to  its  source  far  up  upon  the  heaven- 
kissing  mountain  heights.  If  we  become  warmly  attached 
to  some  fellow-traveler  upon  life's  highway,  we  will  cer- 
tainly want  to  know  something  of  his  home  and  parents, 
of  his  birth  and  early  youth.  Until  we  have  some  in- 
formation upon  these  points  our  relations  cannot  be  quite 
fully  confidential.  In  biographies  of  great  men,  the  most 
careful  attention  is  given  in  our  day  to  the  investi- 
gation of  their  ancestry,  since  it  is  realized  that  here,  as 
elsewhere,  the  germ  bears  within  itself  the  potency  of 
the  fruit.  Thus  the  Church  of  Christ  has  always  cast 
a  backward  glance  from  the  life  and  exaltation  of  Jesus 
to  the  circumstances  of  His  origin.  Won  by  the  trium- 
phant power  of  His  manhood,  her  eyes  have  been  fixed 
upon  the  Child  upon  whose  shoulders  the  divine  govern- 
ment already  rested.  To  her  reverent  questionings  as  to 
the  birth  of  her  Lord  and  Master,  she  has  from  the  very 
beginning  found  the  answer  in  the  resounding  double 
stroke  of  her  most  ancient  Confession 

"Conceived  by  the  Holy  Ghost — 
Born  of  the  Virgin  Mary." 

70 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED          71 

Three  things  are  involved  in  this  confession:  i.  A  his- 
torical fact.  2.  A  divine  miracle.  3.  A  religious  truth 
and  power. 

I.  We  can  speak  of  historical  facts  only  when  the  re- 
ports which  we  have  of  them  are  trustworthy.  Thus  our 
judgment  as  to  the  actual  course  of  events  connected 
with  the  entrance  of  Jesus  upon  the  stage  of  history  de- 
pends upon  whether  we  possess  reliable  sources  of  in- 
formation concerning  them.*  Any  documents  which  claim 
to  be  such  must  be  tested  without  prejudice.  Two  evan- 
gelists, Matthew  and  Luke,  give  details  as  to  the  birth 
of  Jesus.  According  to  both,  the  Virgin  Mary  became 
the  mother  of  Jesus  in  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  This 
testimony  is  borne  by  the  oldest  and  best  texts  of  these 
two  chapters.  Partisan  scientific  half-culture  has,  indeed, 
attempted  to  awaken  prejudice  in  wide  circles  by  assert- 
ing that,  according  to  the  original  form  of  Matthew's 
narrative,  Joseph  was  called  the  natural  father  of  Jesus. 
The  truth  is  that  we  possess  an  ancient  Syrian  transla- 
tion, the  so-called  Syro-Sinaiticus,  which  in  one  single 
half-verse  makes  Jesus  the  son  of  Joseph,  while  in  the 
other  half  of  the  verse  and  in  the  further  course  of  the 
narrative  it  presents  the  virgin  birth.  Furthermore,  it 
may,  with  the  greatest  probability,  be  explained  how  this 
mixed  form  of  the  verse  arose  by  an  error  (clearly  trace- 
able) in  doubling  the  name  of  Joseph  in  translating  from 

*  For  all  details  and  fuller  evidence  I  may  be  permitted  to 
refer  to  my  work,  "Die  Jungfrauengeburt,"  2d  ed.f  1911.  In 
addition  to  the  literature  there  designated,  I  would  call  atten- 
tion to  the  excellent  and  exhaustive  work  of  Dr.  Orr,  of  Scot- 
land, "The  Virgin  Birth  of  Christ,"  1907,  which  presents  in  an 
appendix  a  list  of  opinions  expressed  by  scholars  of  various 
countries.  For  the  interpretation  of  Luke's  acount  of  the  child- 
hood of  Jesus,  Zahn's  work,  "Evangelium  des  Lukas"  (1913)1 
stands  in  the  front  rank. 


72          THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

the  Greek  text,*  which  describes  exclusively  the  virgin 
birth.  There  is  even  less  ground  for  the  bold  attempts 
to  strike  out  verses  34  and  35  of  the  narrative  in  the 
first  chapter  of  Luke  and,  in  the  23d  verse  of  the  third 
chapter,  the  parenthetical  clause,  "as  was  supposed." 
They  are,  as  Zahn  clearly  proves,  "entirely  without 
support  in  the  traditional  texts  traceable  up  to  the  time 
of  Justin  Martyr."  Failing  thus  to  eliminate  the  mirac- 
ulous birth  of  Jesus  from  the  histories  of  the  nativity 
in  Matthew  and  Luke,  the  attempt  is  made  to  discover 
some  substantial  objections  to  it.  Both  narratives  un- 
deniably lay  great  stress  upon  the  connection  of  Jesus 
with  Joseph,  whose  genealogical  register  they  both  pre- 
sent, and  they  both  represent  His  place  in  the  house  of 
David  as  dependent  entirely  upon  this  relationship.  How, 
it  is  asked,  can  Joseph  and  his  ancestry  have  any  signifi- 
cance for  Jesus  if  He  was  not  his  natural  son  ?  But  this 
question  only  reveals  the  inability  of  those  who  offer  it 
to  appreciate  the  viewpoint  of  Judaism  and  the  ancient 
world  in  general.  According  to  this,  all  the  prerogatives 
of  His  father  Joseph  descended  to  Jesus,  because  He 
was  born  in  the  former's  legally  contracted  marriage  with 
Mary.  According  to  the  view  of  the  evangelists,  Jesus 
was  the  natural  son  of  Mary,  but  the  legal  son  of  the  mar- 
riage of  Joseph  anjd  Mary.  Further,  it  is  said  that  Mary, 
by  her  question  when  the  angel  announces  the  coming 
birth  of  Jesus,  "How  shall  this  be,  seeing  I  know  not  a 
man  ?"  furnishes  an  astonishing  contradiction  of  her  sup- 
posed approaching  marriage  to  Joseph,  with  whom,  as 


*Now,  also,  in  the  so-called  Koridethi  Gospels  (see  Wohlen- 
berg,  Theol.  Lit.-Blatt,  1913,  p.  306).  Upon  the  "monstrous  forc- 
ing of  the  text"  which  Soden  has  recently  attempted  in  his  edi- 
tion of  the  New  Testament,  compare  Wohlenberg  in  his  "The- 
ologie  der  Gegenwart,  1913,  p.  26off. 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED          73 

her  espoused,  she  must  have  been  acquainted,  and  that 
this  contradiction  renders  the  whole  narrative  utterly  un- 
trustworthy. But  if  the  investigator  is  at  all  familiar 
with  the  usage  of  the  Greek  word  "know,"  and  especially 
of  its  Hebrew  parallel,  and  knows  that  they  are  equiva- 
lent to  "have  sexual  intercourse,"  and  if  he  observes  also 
that  Mary  uses  the  present  tense  of  the  word — if,  finally, 
he  is  at  all  psychologically  capable  of  picturing  to  him- 
self the  entire  situation,  in  which  Mary  speaks  suddenly, 
timidly  and  impulsively,  this  difficulty  will  be  reduced  to 
nothing.  Mary  replies  to  the  announcement  of  the  angel, 
that  she  now,  in  the  moment  in  which  he  is  addressing 
her,  shall  as  a  virgin  conceive  a  son,  with  the  perfectly 
natural  objection:  "How  is  it  possible  that  I  shall  now 
conceive  since  I  have  conjugal  relations  with  no  man?" 

Thus  the  narratives  of  the  birth  of  Jesus  in  Matthew 
and  Luke,  from  the  beginning  and  throughout,  bear  the 
simple  and  clear  testimony  that  He  was  born  of  the 
Virgin  Mary  in  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  They  are 
the  only  sources  which  furnish  any  details  concerning  the 
birth  of  Jesus.  If  we  are  unwilling  to  accept  them,  we 
must  be  content  without  any  information  as  to  the 
Saviour's  birth;  for  the  other  New  Testament  writings 
nowhere  suggest  any  other  origin  for  Jesus,  nor  place 
themselves  in  any  way  in  opposition  to  the  account  of  the 
two  evangelists.  That  they  directly  testify  to  the  virgin 
birth,  or  at  least  take  it  for  granted,  cannot  be  proved 
with  absolute  certainty,  although  it  may  be  maintained 
with  a  degree  of  probability.  That  Jesus  should  fre- 
quently, and  especially  by  the  multitude,  be  called  the  son 
of  Joseph,  is,  after  what  has  been  observed  as  to  the  legal 
relationship  of  Joseph  to  Jesus,  to  be  taken  as  a  matter  of 
course,  since  the  miraculous  birth  of  the  Lord  remained 
for  the  time  being  a  secret  of  His  own  followers.  That 


74          THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

the  mother  and  relatives  of  Jesus  often  took  offence  at 
His  subsequent  conduct  in  the  pursuit  of  His  mission, 
would  disprove  the  miraculous  birth  only  if  it  had  bfeen 
possible  for  human  eyes  to  deduce  infallibly  from  such 
a  birth  all  the  features  which  would  mark  His  earthly 
life,  and  if  the  relatives  of  Jesus  had  not,  like  many 
others  who  have  witnessed  miracles,  fallen  even  after 
such  experience  into  doubts  and  waverings.  On  the  other 
hand,  Mary  at  the  wedding  in  Cana,  before  the  first 
miracle  of  Jesus,  would  have  had  no  such  absolute  con- 
fidence in  His  power  if  she  had  not  recalled  the  miracle 
of  His  birth.  The  evangelist  Mark,  in  accordance  with 
his  purpose  to  picture  only  the  public  life  of  Jesus,  had 
no  occasion  to  speak  of  His  birth.  But  John  directed 
his  eagle  glance  yet  further  back  to  the  eternal  birth  of 
the  "Word"  with  God,  and  in  the  conclusion  of  the  pro- 
logue of  his  Gospel  declares  that  It  became  flesh.  In  the 
midst  of  the  opening  verses  of  the  same  Gospel,  we  read 
of  those  who  become  the  children  of  God,  that  they  are 
begotten  "not  of  blood,  nor  of  the  will  of  the  flesh,  nor 
of  the  will  of  man,  but  of  God."  Inasmuch  as  John  cer- 
tainly (as  can  be  clearly  proved  by  historical  evidence) 
was  acquainted  with  the  Gospels  of  Matthew  and  Luke 
with  their  accounts  of  the  birth  of  Jesus,  it  is  natural 
to  see  in  the  expressions  italicized  above  an  allusion  to 
the  birth  of  Jesus, — in  the  one,  "not  of  the  will  of  man," 
a  negative  statement  of  that  which  is  positively  affirmed 
in  the  virgin  birth,  and  in  the  other,  "of  God,"  a  some- 
what more  general  form  of  the  expression,  "of  the  Holy 
Spirit,"  in  Matthew.  Believers  are  to  be  born  after  the 
example  of  their  Lord.  There  would,  indeed,  be  a  direct 
reference  to  the  virgin  birth  in  John,  if,  following  not 
the  majority  but  the  best  of  the  manuscripts,  in  verse  13 
we  adopt  the  singular  form  of  the  pronoun  and  verb, 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED          75 

"Who  was  born;  not  of  the  will  of  man,  but  of  God," 
as  we  should,  according  to  the  opinion  of  such  scholars 
as  Blass  and  Zahn. 

In  Paul,  whose  entire  interest  was  concentrated  upon 
the  death  of  Jesus  on  the  cross  and  His  resurrection,  and 
who  barely  touches  suggestively  upon  a  few  separate 
features  of  His  life,  we  find  a  distinct  reference  to  the 
birth  of  Jesus  in  only  one  passage  (Gal.  4  14),  in  which 
he  says  that  God  in  the  fullness  of  time  sent  His  Son, 
"born  of  a  woman,  born  under  the  (a)  law."  According 
to  the  primary  meaning  of  the  language  here  employed, 
the  subject  of  discourse  is  not  the  virgin  birth,  much  less 
the  descent  of  Christ  from  a  father  and  mother.  But  as 
Paul  had  no  other  occasion  for  making  reference  only 
to  the  maternal  ancestry  of  Jesus,  and  as  he  at  all  other 
points  in  the  passage  contents  himself  with  general  ex- 
pressions (he  speaks  not  of  the  Mosaic,  but  only  of 
a  law)  it  is  most  probable  that  he  had  in  mind  the 
miraculous  birth  of  Jesus,  as  reported  by  his  pupil  and 
traveling  companion,  Luke,  in  the  Gospel  written  by  the 
latter. 

We  thus  discover  the  actual  facts  in  the  case  to  be  that 
the  New  Testament  treats  specifically  of  the  virgin  birth 
of  Jesus  only  in  the  earlier  portions  of  Matthew  and 
Luke,  and  that  John  and  Paul  each  apparently  allude  to 
it  in  only  one  passage.  It  is  precisely  this  kind  of  testi- 
mony that  we  have  for  many  facts  and  opinions  of  the 
primitive  Church,  which,  strange  to  say,  is  accepted  as 
sufficient  by  the  very  same  critics  who  find  it  inadmissible 
in  the  case  of  the  account  of  the  birth  of  Jesus.  The 
Sermon  on  the  Mount  and  the  Lord's  Prayer  are  also  re- 
ported to  us  only  in  two  of  the  Gospels.  Paul  never 
refers  directly  to  either  of  them.  Even  the  parables  of 
the  Prodigal  Son  and  the  Good  Samaritan  appear  in  but 


76          THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

one  Gospel,  and  we  find  no  trace  of  them  elsewhere  in 
the  New  Testament. 

The  credibility  of  the  narrative  in  our  Gospels,  re- 
garded from  the  historical  point  of  view,  depends  chiefly 
upon  the  estimate  placed  upon  the  sources  from  which 
it  is  derived.  Do  the  reports  found  in  the  Gospels  come 
from  persons  who  were  in  a  position  to  know  the  facts 
concerning  the  birth  of  Christ,  and  were  these  facts,  as 
reported  by  them,  then  recorded  by  trustworthy  men, 
or  are  they  only  Christianized  legends  of  either  Jewish 
or  heathen  origin  ?  The  efforts  put  forth  within  the  last 
century  and  more  to  sustain  the  latter  view  have  been 
really  astounding.  Learned  theologians  and  philologists, 
natural  scientists  and  social-democratic  writers,  have  vied 
with  one  another  in  searching  for  the  supposed  legendary 
sources  of  our  evangelical  narratives.  We  may  gain  a 
compact  view  of  these  attempts  from  the  words  of  Har- 
nack :  "Seydel  and  Eysinga  thought  of  Buddhism  as  the 
source;  Gardner  and  Bousset  thought  of  Egyptian  ante- 
cedents; Gunkel  and  Cheyne  of  Babylonian  originals; 
Pfleiderer  of  Phrygian  cults ;  Schmiedel  of  Persian  teach- 
ings ;  Dieterich  of  Mithras ;  Usener  of  Greek  mythology ; 
Butler  of  Eleusinian  or  other  unknown  mysteries;  Lob- 
stein  of  spontaneous  origin;  Renan  of  invention  by  the 
parents  of  Jesus  or  one  of  the  evangelists ;  Abbot  of  the 
teachings  of  Philo;  Soltau  and  others  of  the  legends  of 
the  miraculous  birth  of  Plato  and  Augustus;  Soltau  of 
the  visit  of  Tiridates.  This  register  is  discouraging  in 
the  highest  degree.  For  the  present  (!)  we  remain  with 
the  later  Judaism."  *  Under  these  conditions  no  one 
can  blame  us  if  we  do  not  eagerly  proceed  to  an  exam- 
ination of  this  register  of  "scientific"  fantasies  and  critical 


*  Dogmengeschichte,  4th  edition,  I.  113,  note  i. 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED          77 

incapacity,*  but,  "for  the  present,"  content  ourselves  with 
tracing  the  record  to  reliable  Christian  tradition.  Since, 
in  the  heathen  world,  although  the  idea  repeatedly  ap- 
peared that  there  were  peculiar  and  miraculous  circum- 
stances attending  the  birth  of  certain  individual  great 
men,  no  one  was  ever  definitely  represented  as  born  of  a 
virgin  through  the  Holy  Spirit,  we  are  naturally  led  to 
seek  in  the  statements  of  our  sources  some  connection 
with  declarations  of  the  Old  Testament.  Matthew,  it 
may  be  said,  sees  the  prophecy  in  the  seventh  chapter  of 
Isaiah  fulfilled  in  the  birth  of  Jesus,  and  we  can  easily 
imagine  that  his  report  was  a  development  of  the  material 
thus  furnished.  But  here,  too,  a  more  careful  examina- 
tion will  lead  to  a  different  conclusion.  Matthew  is  the 
first,  and  was  for  a  long  time  the  only  Jewish  (i.e.,  Jew- 
ish-Christian) writer  who  interpreted  Isaiah  7  messianic- 
ally,  and  who  understands  it  as  a  prophecy  of  the  virgin 
birth  of  Christ.  This  understanding  occurs  to  him  only 
as  an  outgrowth  of  his  faith  in  the  virgin  birth,  which 
faith  was  established  in  another  way,  i.e.,  based  upon 
historical  evidence.  Consequently,  it  was  the  fulfillment 
which  led  to  the  discovery  and  understanding  of  the 
prophecy. 

In  the  narratives  of  the  birth  of  Christ  in  Matthew 
and  Luke,  we  have  before  us  recensions  of  two  independ- 
ent traditions  of  the  earliest  Christian  Church.  The  dis- 
tinctly Old  Testament  coloring,  both  as  to  form  and 
matter,  of  the  first  two  chapters  of  Luke,  in  marked  con- 
trast with  the  Greek-Christian  caste  of  the  remainder  of 


*  Compare  the  careful  examination  of  the  separate  views  in 
my  book,  "Die  Jungf rauengeburt,"  pp.  29-40 ;  also  Orr,  1.  c.  The 
latest  production  of  a  reckless  fancy,  leading  us  to  Egypt,  is 
furnished  by  Gressmann,  "Das  Weihnachtsevangelium,"  1914. 


78          THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

this  Gospel,  makes  it  very  probable  that  the  evangelist 
had  the  use  of  a  Jewish-Christian  tradition,  either  in 
written  or  in  a  relatively  fixed  oral  form.  Many  consid- 
erations, to  which  Zahn  especially  has  called  attention, 
make  it  appear  very  probable  that  the  original  source  of 
the  items  in  the  account  here  given  is  to  be  found  in  the 
declarations  of  Mary  herself.  Having  become  a  promi- 
nent member  of  the  Church,  Mary,  after  the  death  and 
resurrection  of  Jesus,  would  naturally  speak  with  a  sanc- 
tified pride  of  the  miraculous  birth  of  her  Son,  now  be- 
come her  Lord,  giving  prominence  from  time  to  time  to 
various  separate  aspects  of  the  narrative.  The  report 
of  these  wonderful  things  was  spread  widely  through  the 
Church.  It  reached  the  ears  not  only  of  the  Gentile- 
Christian  evangelist  Luke,  but  yet  more  easily  and  di- 
rectly those  of  the  Jewish-Christian  Matthew.  He  re- 
lated for  us  the  things  which  he  had  heard,  presenting 
the  history  of  the  birth  of  the  Messiah  in  a  form  in  har- 
mony with  the  special  purpose  of  his  Gospel.  Not  much 
more  than  a  generation  after  the  death  of  Jesus,  the  re- 
ports of  Matthew  and  Luke  were  written  down,  at  a 
time  when  many  contemporaries  and  relatives  of  Jesus 
were  yet  living.  It  is  utterly  inconceivable  that  these  per- 
sons could  have  allowed  heathen  legends  or  Jewish  tales 
as  to  the  birth  of  their  Master  to  be  imposed  upon  them. 
But  we  meet  in  the  Church  of  the  apostolic  age  not  the 
slightest  indication  to  dispute  the  virgin  birth  of  Christ. 
On  the  contrary,  when  the  Church  framed  her  first  fixed 
form  of  confession,  at  the  close  of  the  first  or  be- 
ginning of  the  second  century,  she  at  once  incorporated 
in  it  the  words,  "Conceived  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  born  of 
the  Virgin  Mary."  They  are  an  integral  part  of  the  very 
earliest  form  of  the  Creed  known  to  us.  The  Church 
fathers  from  very  early  times  were  thoroughly  familiar 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED          79 

and  in  accord  with  it.  It  is  only  among  parties  utterly 
alienated  from  genuine  Christianity,  such  as  the  Ebionites 
and  certain  Gnostic  sects,  that  these  clauses  were  rejected, 
and  that  upon  dogmatic  grounds.  Not  only  have  the 
Roman  and  Greek  Churches  held  fast  to  this  article  of 
the  Creed,  but  with  especial  energy  also  the  Church  of 
the  Reformation  under  the  leadership  of  Luther,  whose 
cordial  acceptance  of  it  is  strikingly  seen  in  his  Christ- 
mas hymns.  Even  Protestant  factions  which  in  other 
points  wandered  far  from  the  faith  of  primitive  Chris- 
tianity, such  as  the  Socinians,  still  held  firmly  to  the 
miraculous  birth.  It  is  only  since  the  rise  of  Rationalism 
that  criticism  of  it  has  been  growing  ever  more  insistent, 
and  this  not  as  a  result  of  superior  historical  insight,  but 
because  of  a  drifting  of  dogmatics  and  philosophical 
conceptions  of  the  universe  away  from  the  principles  of 
Christianity. 

II.  The  clause  in  the  Creed,  "Conceived  by  the  Holy 
Ghost,  born  of  the  Virgin  Mary,"  proclaims  not  only  a 
historical  fact,  but  also  a  divine  miracle.  These  two  are 
not  mutually  exclusive,  but  most  intimately  connected. 
The  wonderful  revelation  of  God  in  Christ  is  actualized 
in  the  form  of  history,  and  all  its  separate  historical  mani- 
festations have  place  in  the  Christian  redemptive  pro- 
gram only  in  so  far  as  they  include  divine  miracles.  At- 
tention has  often  been  called,  in  a  well-meant  effort  to 
defend  the  doctrine  in  question,  to  the  fact  that  in  the 
natural  world  births  sometimes  occur  without  mascu- 
line intervention,  and  the  birth  of  Jesus  has  been  sup- 
posed to  be  analogous  to  this.  But  if  this  illustration 
were  pertinent,  we  would  then  be  dealing  with  a  rare, 
and,  perhaps,  unique  natural  event,  which  would  have  no 
place  in  the  history  of  religion,  least  of  all  in  the  annals 
of  Christianity.  Such  a  position  can  be  assigned  to  the 


80          THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

birth  of  Christ  only  if  it  be  recognized  as  a  divine  miracle. 
i.e.,  only  if  God  works  directly  and  immediately  from  out 
eternity  and  brings  things  to  pass  in  nature  and  history 
which  could  never  in  any  case  have  been  accomplished  by 
their  own  powers.  The  Creed  endeavors  to  express  this 
idea  when  it  sees  the  positive  cause  of  the  miraculous 
birth  of  Jesus  in  the  fact  that  He  was  "conceived  by  the 
Holy  Ghost."  According  to  Luke,  the  angel  announces, 
"The  Holy  Spirit  shall  come  upon  thee,  and  the  power 
of  the  Most  High  shall  overshadow  thee" ;  and,  according 
to  Matthew,  he  declares  to  Joseph,  "That  which  is  con- 
ceived in  her  is  of  the  Holy  Spirit."  Thus  our  eyes  are 
directed  upward  from  the  world  to  God,  from  history  to 
eternity,  from  the  powers  of  earth  to  the  might  of  the 
Lord.  The  birth  of  Jesus  leads  us  up  to  God,  and,  in- 
deed, into  His  inmost  nature,  into  His  Spirit,  who 
embraces  in  Himself  all  creative  energies.  The  biblical 
writers  do  not  think  of  the  third  separate  Person  of  the 
Holy  Trinity,  who  was  manifested  in  history  only  after 
the  departure  of  Jesus,  but,  in  harmony  with  the  Old 
Testament,  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  which  at  the  Creation 
brooded  over  chaos  and  gave  it  form,  which  entered  into 
the  human  body  and  became  in  it  a  living  soul,  which  by 
its  creative  power  first  called  nature  and  humanity  into 
life.  It  is  the  Spirit  of  God  which  came  upon  the  heroes 
and  laid  hold  upon  the  prophets,  imparting  to  them  the 
knowledge  and  blessings  of  another  world,  which  they 
never  could  have  secured  through  the  exercise  of  their 
natural  endowments.  The  Spirit  is  the  creative  power 
of  the  Most  High.  This  divine  energy  was  exerted  at 
the  birth  of  Jesus  as  directly  and  immediately  as  at  the 
creation  of  the  world,  of  man,  or  at  the  appearance  of 
any  extraordinary  events  recorded  in  the  Old  Testament. 
We  stand,  therefore,  face  to  face  with  a  miracle,  under- 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED          81 

standing  this  to  be  an  event  whose  characteristic  feature 
is  that  it  is  due  to  the  power  of  God  alone.  But  since 
it  is  the  creative  Holy  Spirit  of  God  who  here  exerts 
His  energy,  we  are  facing  a  miracle  whose  peculiarity 
does  not  consist  alone  in  its  distinctness  from  the  works 
of  the  Creator,  but  also  in  its  opposition  to  sin.  That 
God  should,  in  the  form  of  this  miracle,  interfere  in  a 
fresh  creative  way  in  the  world  (itself  formed  by  Him) 
and  its  natural  course,  finds  its  truest  justification,  not  in 
the  fact  that  He  thereby  proves  ever  anew  that  He  is  the 
absolute  Lord  of  nature,  but  in  the  fact  that  He  here, 
as  the  Holy  One,  enters  the  world  of  sinners  for  their 
salvation.  The  Old  Testament  saint  had  already  learned 
to  pray:  "Cast  me  not  away  from  thy  presence;  and 
take  not  thy  Holy  Spirit  from  me,"  since  he  knew  that 
the  forgiving  grace  of  God  was  inseparably  connected 
with  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit ;  and  the  Old  Testament 
promise  of  the  outpouring  of  the  Spirit  was  at  the  same 
time  the  promise  of  new  life  free  from  sin.  A  divine 
miracle  is,  therefore,  always  a  miracle  of  salvation,  hav- 
ing in  view  the  vanquishing  of  sin.  Such  a  miracle  the 
Christian  Church  confesses,  when  she  says :  "Conceived 
by  the  Holy  Ghost."  Here  begins  the  greatest  and  the 
most  decisive  opposition  to  sin,  and  hence  the  Holy  Spirit 
of  God  enters  upon  the  scene  in  His  full  energy  and 
power  and  brings  perfect  holiness  into  existence  in  his- 
tory. But  if  the  birth  of  Christ  is  thus  a  divine  miracle, 
in  which  the  most  profound  and  final  features  of  the 
Christian  conception  of  God  and  the  world  are  compre- 
hended, it  may  be  easily  understood  that  this  confession 
is  possible  only  for  those  who  recognize  and  acknowledge 
an  almighty  Creator  and  Governor  of  the  world,  and  a 
sin-combating  and  a  sin-conquering  God  of  salvation. 
But  he  who  does  not  believe  in  God,  or  at  least  not  in 


82          THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

the  sense  of  the  first  article  of  the  Creed,  who  does  not 
acknowledge  the  reality  of  sin  and  the  need  of  its  re- 
moval by  the  power  of  God  alone,  is  driven  by  necessity 
to  deny  the  divine  miracle  of  the  Nativity.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  Christian  Church,  as  she  recognizes  the  divinely 
miraculous  in  the  entire  history  of  redemption,  so  with 
peculiar  joy  and  gratitude  confesses  the  unique  miracle 
in  the  birth  of  Christ  because  she  derives  from  it  a  pecu- 
liar religious  enlightenment  and  power. 

III.  It  is  not  the  task  of  Christian  faith  and  Christian 
theology  to  maintain  the  necessity  of  a  particular  miracle, 
in  the  sense  that  God  was  compelled  to  perform  it  pre- 
cisely as  He  did,  nor  to  deduce  it  in  its  characteristic 
features  from  Christian  experience.  It  is,  however,  their 
duty  to  gain  from  every  miracle  actually  performed  in 
the  course  of  history  some  religious  ideas  and  forces. 
We  dare,  therefore,  neither  say  that  God  was  under  the 
necessity  of  performing  the  miracle  of  the  birth  of  Jesus 
through  His  conception  in  the  womb  of  the  Virgin,  nor 
that  our  religious  experience  requires  this  fact  as  its 
basis.  Yet  the  divine  miracle,  as  actually  performed 
in  His  self-revelation,  is  designed  precisely  by  its  entire 
definite  form  to  awaken  religious  ideas  and  forces.  The 
New  Testament  reports  themselves  here  point  out  the 
way  for  us.  In  Matthew  it  is  said:  "And  she  shall 
bring  forth  a  Son;  and  thou  shalt  call  his  name  Jesus; 
for  it  is  he  that  shall  save  his  people  from  their  sins"- 
ideas  which  are  in  Luke  developed  into  the  further  state- 
ment, that  this  Jesus  will  be  the  promised  king  out  of 
the  house  of  David,  to  which  is  added  the  announcement : 
"The  holy  thing  which  is  begotten  of  thee  shall  be  called 
the  Son  of  God."  The  virgin  birth  is  the  appropriate  form 
in  which  God  established  in  history  the  sinlessness  and 
Sonship  of  Jesus.  If  anything  is  positively  established  in 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED          83 

the  New  Testament  and  in  the  faith  of  Christendom,  it 
is  the  double  truth  of  the  perfect  sinlessness  and  the 
peculiar  divine  Sonship  of  the  Lord.  Yet  neither  of  these 
traits  was  developed  in  the  course  of  His  earthly  life, 
but  both  were  present  from  its  very  beginning.  How  this 
came  to  be  is  explained  by  the  birth  from  the  Holy  Ghost 
and  the  Virgin  Mary.  The  Holy  Spirit  created  the  sin- 
lessness of  the  child.  He  established  the  holy  life  of  a 
human  personality,  which,  because  in  its  growth  remain- 
ing free  from  sin,  could  save  the  people  from  their  sins. 

The  absence  of  human  fatherhood  made  Jesus  free 
from  all  dependence  upon  a  human  personality  to  whose 
will  He  was  indebted  for  His  life.  This  enables  us  to 
understand  how  this  Jesus  was  exactly  fitted  to  become 
the  Lord  and  King  of  the  human  race.  As  John  has  re- 
vealed the  profoundest  significance  of  so  many  facts  of 
the  Gospel  history,  so  especially  in  the  case  of  the  virgin 
birth  he  expresses  this  in  a  striking  way  by  three  nega- 
tions :  "Not  of  blood,  nor  of  the  will  of  the  flesh,  nor  of 
the  will  of  a  man."  All  carnal  paternity,  but  also  as  well 
all  voluntary  activity  of  the  human  spirit,  must  be  ex- 
cluded at  the  birth  of  Jesus.  It  is  in  no  sense  a  product 
of  humanity.  Humanity  contributed  nothing  to  His 
coming;  but  only  received  Him.  The  Virgin  takes  what 
God  gives.  God  is  here  the  originator,  or,  speaking  yet 
more  precisely,  the  eternal  Son  Himself  assumes  the 
earthly  flesh  and  the  human  mode  of  existence.  For  it 
is  not  the  idea  that  something  absolutely  new  shall  ap- 
pear, which  did  not  exist  before,  but  that  the  Son,  Him- 
self not  subject  to  the  limitations  of  time,  shall  assume 
a  form  of  human  existence  in  which  He  can  accomplish 
the  historical  redemption  which  He  has  in  view.  The 
divinity  of  Jesus  is  the  creative  principle;  His  eternal 
spiritual  will  acts  here.  Therefore,  no  will  of  man  can 


84          THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

act  concurrently  with  it,  but  only  the  humble  Virgin,  who 
says,  "Behold,  the  handmaid  of  the  Lord;  be  it  unto  me 
according  to  thy  word."  But  there  was  also  a  real  neces- 
sity for  her  participation  in  the  execution  of  the  plan. 
Hence  Paul,  in  the  passage  from  the  Epistle  to  the  Gala- 
tians  already  cited,  lays  such  emphasis  upon  the  "born 
of  a  woman."  For  just  as  certainly  as  Jesus  could  not  be 
a  creature  of  humanity  must  He  nevertheless  be  a  mem- 
ber of  the  human  race.  And  this  He  became  through 
His  actual  birth  from  a  woman,  but  not — as  the  Gnostics 
fancied — by  descending  into  an  earthly  body.  The  birth 
from  the  Virgin  by  the  negative  element  inherent  in  it 
made  possible  His  unique  divine  Sonship ;  by  its  positive 
element,  His  true  humanity.  The  miraculous  birth  of 
Jesus,  therefore,  furnishes  us  a  religious  apprehension  of 
the  mode  in  which,  by  the  will  of  God,  His  sinlessness  and 
divine-human  Sonship  were  established  in  the  current 
of  history.  It  shows  us  how  the  "hero  of  double  de- 
scent" was  born  of  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God. 

These  religious  conceptions  are  direct  sources  of  re- 
ligious power,  as  every  dogma  based  upon  revelation 
normally  promotes  religion.*  We  here  see  God  in  the  ex- 
ertion of  His  creative  power.  He,  therefore,  becomes 
great  to  us  also  in  His  relation  to  our  lives,  and  we  be- 
come small.  He  does  not  use  the  will  of  man  to  accom- 
plish His  purpose,  but  calls  into  His  service  the  humble 
receptivity  of  the  maiden.  We  recognize  the  fact  that 
with  God  everything  depends  upon  holiness,  and  that  He 
exerts  His  power  to  perform  miracles  with  the  end  in 
view  that  holiness  may  be  produced  also  in  and  by  us. 

But,  above  all,  Christ  Himself  by  His  birth,  as  thus 


*  Compare  my  article,  "Der  religiose  Character  des  Dogma,"  in 
Neue  Kirchliche  Zeitschrift,   1913. 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED    85 

testified,  becomes  for  us  glorious  and  wonderful,  and 
we  become  ever  more  and  more  fully  convinced  that  this 
Son  of  the  Virgin  is  really  qualified  to  redeem  and  sanc- 
tify us.  The  birth  of  Jesus,  "conceived  by  the  Holy 
Ghost,  born  of  the  Virgin  Mary,"  therefore  remains  one 
of  the  fundamental  facts  of  salvation,  helping  us  to  make 
our  own  the  faith  and  life  of  the  Christian  religion. 


CHAPTER  VI 

Suffered  under  Pontius  Pilate,  Crucified,  Dead,  Buried, 
Descended  into  Hell 

BY  DR.  P.  ALTHAUS 

PROFESSOR  OF  SYSTEMATIC  THEOLOGY  AT  LEIPSIC 

These  words  carry  us  into  the  real  center  of  the  Creed. 
They  describe  the  historical  redemptive  work  of  Jesus 
Christ.  In  His  suffering  and  death  He  accomplished 
the  deliverance  upon  the  ground  of  which  He  has  become 
"our  Lord."  The  gateway  of  Christ's  passion  stands 
open  before  us,  and  we  behold  erected  before  our  eyes 
the  cross  on  Golgotha.  The  whole  life  of  the  Lord  is 
indeed  a  course  of  suffering.  As  He  was  "in  all  points 
tempted  like  as  we  are,"  so  He  constantly  suffered  under 
the  burden  of  the  sin  of  the  world,  under  the  hatred  of 
His  enemies,  the  unreceptiveness  of  the  multitude,  the 
misunderstandings  and  hardness  of  heart  of  His  dis- 
ciples. But  our  symbol  passes  by  all  of  this.  As  indi- 
cated by  the  clause,  "under  Pontius  Pilate,"  it  has  in 
mind  the  sufferings  of  Jesus  which  began  in  the  agony 
of  soul  in  the  garden  of  Gethsemane  and  reached  their 
culmination  on  the  cross — the  "Great  Passion,"  or,  as 
Luther  expresses  it,  "the  true  sufferings,"  when  the  in- 
nocent Accused  One  was  delivered  into  the  hands  of  the 
heathen  judge  and  upon  his  verdict  led  away  to  death 
upon  the  accursed  tree.  With  this  incomparable  history 
the  life  of  the  believing  Church  has  developed  in  the  most 
intimate  and  unique  association.  Nothing  else  can  be 

86 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED          87 

placed  upon  an  equality  with  it.  This  history  rings 
through  all  her  prayers  and  hymns;  it  is  the  exhaustless 
fountain  whence  has  flowed  ceaselessly  the  stream  of 
sacred  song.  The  noblest  creations  of  Christian  art  have 
drawn  their  inspiration  from  it.  Our  most  overpowering 
oratorios,  our  most  splendid  paintings  and  statuary  are 
in  illustration  of  the  passion  of  Jesus.  It  holds  an  en- 
tirely unique  place  in  the  very  center  of  our  whole  re- 
ligious thought  and  experience. 

The  criticism  has  been  made  upon  the  Creed  that  it 
passes  immediately  from  the  birth  of  the  Lord  to  His 
sufferings  and  death.  We  miss  any  statement  concern- 
ing His  earthly  life,  His  words  so  full  of  spirit  and  life, 
and  His  mighty  deeds.  But  such  critics  overlook  the  fact 
that  we  have  before  us  here  the  basic  Confession,  whose 
only  purpose  is  to  set  forth  in  brief,  pithy  statements  the 
leading  facts  bearing  upon  our  salvation,  upon  which  the 
faith  of  the  Church  principally  depends,  i.e.,  the  birth, 
death  and  exaltation  of  Jesus.  It  is  not  at  all  implied  in 
this  that  the  historical  activity  of  the  Lord  during  His 
earthly  life  has  no  important  relation  to  the  work  of  re- 
demption. His  whole  official  career  was  spent  in  the 
service  of  one  and  the  same  mediatorial  work  which  had 
been  committed  to  Him  as  the  God-appointed  Reconciler. 
His  proclamations  of  truth  and  His  works  of  healing, 
His  yearning  love  for  the  sinful  and  His  conflicts  with 
the  powers  of  darkness,  His  displays  of  power  and  of 
grace — all  these  stood  in  direct  relation  to  His  one 
supreme  work  of  redemption.  His  life,  without  His  suf- 
ferings and  death,  would  have  brought  us  no  actual  deliv- 
erance. Everything  that  Jesus  did  as  a  teacher  and  bene- 
factor attains  its  divinely-appointed  end  only  in  His 
death.  Everything  points  to  the  cross.  In  this  sense 
all  the  earthly  labors  of  Jesus  are  a  preparation  for  His 


88          THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

death.  And  again,  in  the  sufferings  and  death  of  Jesus 
His  whole  life  is  concentrated  and  included  as  in  a  sum- 
mary. The  obedience  with  which  He  always  fulfilled  the 
will  of  the  Father  is  here  tested  to  the  uttermost.  The 
saving  love  which  He  manifested  toward  the  children  of 
men  is  here  seen  in  its  perfection.  The  self-forgetful 
devotion  with  which  He  served  His  brethren  here  reaches 
its  culmination  as  He  offers  up  His  life  for  them.  The 
holy  zeal  with  which  He  ever  sought  the  salvation  of 
souls,  His  struggles  with  the  powers  of  temptation,  the 
overwhelming  earnestness  of  His  teaching — are  all 
crowded  together  in  these  last  hours.  Where  is  the 
majesty  of  Jesus  more  impressively  manifested,  where 
does  the  glory  of  His  spotless  life  shine  more  brightly 
than  when,  standing  before  the  Roman  governor,  He 
makes  the  "good  confession"  on  account  of  which  He 
has  endured  all  the  mockery  and  contumely  of  the  world  ? 
Where  can  we  look  more  deeply  into  the  heart  of  Jesus — 
His  humility,  His  consciousness  of  royalty,  His  stead- 
fast trust  in  God — than  when  He  is  hanging  upon  the 
cross  with  the  thorn-crown  on  His  brow?  Thus  His 
sufferings  and  death  are  the  summary  of  His  life,  His 
cross  the  best  compendium  of  the  Gospel  history. 

In  the  preaching  of  the  apostles,  also,  from  which  the 
Creed  was  derived,  the  testimony  to  the  death  of  Jesus 
stands  just  as  distinctly  in  the  foreground.  That  Jesus 
"died  for  our  sins  according  to  the  scriptures"  (i  Cor. 
15:3)  and  that  He  redeemed  us  with  His  precious  blood 
(i  Peter  I  :  19) — in  this  great  testimony  all  the  many 
and  various  doctrinal  utterances  of  the  New  Testament 
writers  unite.  "I  determined  not  to  know  anything 
among  you,  save  Jesus  Christ  and  him  crucified,"  writes 
Paul  as  he  looks  back  upon  his  missionary  labors  in 
Corinth.  And  when  he  desires  to  condense  the  entire  sub- 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED          89 

stance  of  the  glad  tidings  which  he  was  sent  to  pro- 
claim into  one  brief,  comprehensive  expression,  he  selects 
the  significant  phrase,  "the  word  of  the  cross."  To  him 
this  tells  all.  In  it  is  embraced  the  whole  Gospel  of 
Jesus.  If  our  Creed,  therefore,  in  its  most  ancient  form 
contented  itself  with  the  presentation  of  the  one  great 
fact,  that  Jesus  was  "crucified  under  Pontius  Pilate,"  it 
in  doing  so  faithfully  followed  the  method  pursued  by 
the  apostles  in  their  teaching.  The  later  addition,  "dead," 
does  not  add  anything  new  to  the  earlier  statement,  but 
only  serves  to  develop  it  a  little  more  fully.  In  view  of 
the  spreading  of  the  false  doctrine,  that  the  death  of  Jesus 
was  only  apparent,  it  was  found  necessary  to  expressly 
emphasize  the  fact  that  He  not  only  bore  the  agonies  of 
crucifixion,  but  also  drank  to  its  dregs  the  bitter  cup  of 
death  and  really  died  upon  the  cross.  This  is  a  truth 
most  essential  to  the  Christian  faith,  for  it  is  only  in  the 
death  of  Jesus  that  the  redeeming  work  entrusted  to 
Him  by  God  attains  its  final  realization.  This  end  is  not 
attained  merely  because  Jesus  has  suffered  all  that  it  was 
possible  to  suffer,  and  accomplished  the  most  difficult 
task,  but  because  He  made  Himself  subject  to  the  penalty 
of  death  which  was  resting  upon  the  human  race  on  ac- 
count of  its  sin.  Only  in  this  way  could  He  become  our 
Reconciler.  And  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  Jesus  Him- 
self saw  in  His  sacrificial  death  the  decisive  act  and  the 
real  consummation  of  His  redemptive  mission.  The 
solemn  and  significant  way  in  which  He  speaks  of  the 
"hour"  of  His  death  and  refers  to  the  "baptism"  which 
He  must  yet  receive;  the  seriousness  with  which  He  as- 
serts the  divine  "must"  which  hovers  over  the  bloody 
termination  of  His  earthly  life,  and  the  calm  and  resolute 
determination  with  which  He,  despite  all  temptations, 
presses  forward  to  the  goal,  make  it  very  evident  that  in 


90          THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

the  death  of  Jesus  we  are  to  find,  not  only  the  crowning 
point  of  His  ministry  and  the  necessary  termination  of 
His  earthly  life,  but  the  act  in  which  the  atonement  ren- 
dered by  Him  for  the  sin  of  the  world  reaches  the  point 
of  actual  accomplishment.  Only  as  He  was  dying  could 
He  utter  the  shout  of  triumph,  "It  is  finished !" 

It  is  true  that  the  Creed  contains  no  direct  statement 
as  to  the  redeeming  efficacy  of  the  death  of  Christ.  It 
permits  the  facts  of  the  sacred  history  to  speak  for  them- 
selves, without  making  any  kind  of  theological  comments 
as  to  the  "How?"  or  attempting  to  describe  the  personal 
religious  experiences  which  individual  believers  may  con- 
tinuously have  in  view  of  these  events.  This  has  also 
been  considered  by  some  as  a  defect  in  the  symbol.  But 
how  unfounded  is  this  objection!  On  the  contrary,  it 
maintains  its  character  as  a  general  ecclesiastical  confes- 
sion by  the  very  fact  that  it  contents  itself  with  the 
simple,  plain  recital  of  the  great  deeds  of  God  in  Christ, 
upon  which  the  faith  of  the  whole  Christian  Church  of 
all  ages  rests  as  upon  an  unchangeable  foundation.  It 
might  be  reserved  for  a  later  age  to  amplify  its  confes- 
sion and  fortify  it  against  variant  doctrinal  tendencies 
by  explanatory  clauses;  but  our  most  ancient  confession 
regards  it  as  its  only  task  to  bear  testimony  to  the  suffer- 
ings and  death  of  Jesus  as  a  veritable  fact  of  history. 
It  is  for  this  very  reason  that  we  are  expressly  reminded 
that  this  event  occurred  under  the  well-known  historical 
personality,  Pontius  Pilate.  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  Creed  does  not  fail  to  give  distinct  prominence  to  the 
fact  that  the  death  of  Jesus  was  for  our  salvation;  for 
it  will  be  observed  that  every  separate  statement  of  the 
second  article  is  embraced  in  the  great  first  clause,  "I  be- 
lieve in  Jesus  Christ,  our  Lord."  Because  He  suffered 
and  died  for  us  as  our  Redeemer,  therefore  the  Church 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED          91 

of  the  redeemed  confesses  Him  as  her  Lord,  in  whom  she 
places  her  confidence.  And  by  the  words,  "I  believe," 
the  relation  of  these  redemptive  facts  to  each  believer's 
individual  sense  of  reconciliation  is  set  forth. 

The  above  reflections  are  of  decisive  importance,  as 
they  put  us  upon  our  guard  against  the  error  of  locating 
the  atoning  element  in  the  redemptive  work  of  Christ 
in  any  material  act,  as  though  any  single  act  of  Jesus, 
in  itself  considered,  any  deed  of  His  life,  or  the  mere 
experience  of  His  sufferings  and  death  constituted,  on 
account  of  the  actual  value  to  be  attributed  to  it,  a  merit 
before  God  and  had  significance  as  a  satisfaction.  The 
plain  language  of  the  Creed  leads  us  to  a  different  under- 
standing of  the  matter.  The  words,  "suffered,  crucified, 
dead,"  do  not  constitute  in  themselves  an  article  of  faith, 
but  they  are  most  intimately  connected  with  "Jesus  Christ, 
our  Lord,"  to  which  the  declaration,  "I  believe,"  points. 
For  faith,  in  the  complete  sense  of  the  New  Testament, 
does  not  rest  in  events  as  such,  but  clings  alone  to  the 
Person  who  was  crucified  for  us.  The  deeds  and  suffer- 
ings of  Jesus  became  a  means  of  atonement  only  through 
the  fact  that  they  are  manifestations  of  His  personal  life, 
acts  of  this  Person,  Christ.  Since  it  is  the  God-appointed 
Mediator  of  salvation  who  performs  this  deed  and  dies 
this  death,  and  since  He  accomplishes  this  work  in  such 
a  way  as  He  does,  and  as  only  He  could  have  done, 
therefore  does  His  deed  have  value  in  the  sight  of  God 
and  inure  to  the  salvation  of  the  human  race.  "I  believe 
in  Jesus  Christ  as  the  One  crucified  for  us."  He  Him- 
self in  His  own  Person  is  "the  propitiation  for  our  sins." 
(i  John  2:2.)  Redemption  depends  solely  upon  Him. 
(Eph.  1:7;  Col.  i  :  14.) 

It  requires  only  a  glance  at  the  Gospel  history  to  gain 
a  clear  view  of  the  personal  activity  of  Jesus  for  the 


92          THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

salvation  of  men.  In  the  "for  us"  we  find  the  key  to  the 
interpretation  of  His  whole  life,  sufferings  and  death. 
How  plainly  we  can  see  it!  For  our  benefit  He  became 
man;  for  our  sakes  He  became  poor  among  the  poor, 
little  among  the  least.  He  lives  only  for  the  children  of 
men.  In  the  consciousness  of  entire  solidarity  with 
them,  as  well  in  view  of  what  they  have  to  do  as  in  view 
of  what  they  have  to  suffer,  He  makes  their  cause  thor- 
oughly His  own,  lives  Himself  thoroughly  into  their  mis- 
ery, sinks  Himself  entirely  into  their  needs,  even  into 
the  uttermost  distress  of  their  sin  and  guilt.  When  Jesus 
heals  the  sick,  He  endures  their  sickness.  When  He 
interests  Himself  in  the  sinful,  He  feels  their  sins  as  a 
burden  of  His  own.  When  He  sheds  tears  over  Jerusa- 
lem, her  guilt  and  judgment  are  weighing  upon  His  own 
heart.  It  is  very  significant  that  the  first  evangelist 
(Matt.  8  :  17)  sees  in  Jesus  the  fulfillment  of  the  proph- 
ecy of  Isaiah:  "He  hath  borne  our  griefs  and  carried 
our  sorrows,"  at  a  time  when  He  was  yet  engaged  in  the 
midst  of  His  active  ministry.  Thus  the  entire  life  of 
Jesus  is  a  redemptive  interposition  on  behalf  of  men  be- 
cause it  was  a  loving  self-surrender  to  men.  But  this 
self -surrender  finds  its  consummation  only  in  His  death. 
In  His  death,  Jesus  does  the  utmost  that  love  can  do.  He 
dies,  not  for  Himself,  but  for  His  brethren,  dies  with  the 
consciousness  and  the  purpose  of  making  atonement  for 
them  in  death,  as  their  Mediator  and  Reconciler.  He 
knows  Himself  called  of  God  "to  minister,  and  to  give 
his  life  a  ransom  for  many."  If  He  has  become  in  all 
things  like  unto  His  brethren  and  made  all  their  interests 
His  own,  He  now  subjects  Himself  also  to  all  the  suffer- 
ings which  were  resting  upon  the  race  as  the  consequence 
of  their  sin,  voluntarily  and  patiently  enters  into  the 
penal  relationship  which  for  them  rightfully  existed  be- 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED          93 

tween  their  guilt  and  its  punishment.  He  tastes  the  bit- 
terness of  the  cup  of  suffering,  experiences  the  terrors 
of  death,  endures  the  frightful  torture  of  a  death  under 
disgrace  and  curse,  in  holy  submission  to  the  judicial 
will  of  God.  But  this  death  is  not  for  Him  a  punishment 
unwillingly  endured,  but  a  willing  endurance  of  the  pun- 
ishment due  the  human  race  in  obedience  to  the  will 
of  His  Father. 

This  sacrifice  of  the  Innocent  One  was  designed  by 
the  redeeming  love  of  God.  (Rom.  5:8;!  John  4  :  10.) 
He  surrenders  the  Son  to  the  world  and  its  wickedness, 
that  it  may  do  its  worst  to  Him.  God  withholds  from 
Him  the  vision  and  comfort  of  His  helpful  presence. 
He  does  not  interfere  when  the  hands  of  evildoers  are 
laid  upon  His  beloved  Child,  upon  whom  even  now  His 
holy  approbation  rests.  Hence  the  outcry  of  the  Tor- 
tured One,  who  in  the  gathering  shades  of  death  could 
not  find  the  hand  of  God.  "Yet  it  pleased  Jehovah  to 
bruise  him."  (Isa.  53  :  10.)  It  pleased  Him,  in  order 
that  upon  this  cross  sin  might  be  revealed  in  all  its 
enormity  as  sin,  i.e.,  as  opposition  to  God;  and,  further- 
more, in  order  that  it  might  in  this,  His  Holy  One,  be  con- 
demned and  forever  done  away  with.  It  does  not  over- 
power Him  nor  alienate  Him  from  God ;  but  it  must  serve 
to  make  manifest  to  all  the  world  that  He  could  preserve 
to  the  end  His  obedience  to  the  Father  and  His  love  for 
the  children  of  men.  (Phil.  2:8;  Heb.  5  :  8,  9.)  In  this 
way  the  death  of  Christ  has  become  a  perfect  atoning 
sacrifice  for  the  sin  of  the  world.  God  has  in  Christ 
reconciled  the  world  unto  Himself  and  removed  the 
guilt  which  rested  upon  it;  for  in  Christ  are  embraced, 
as  one  body  in  the  eyes  of  God,  all  those  who  attach 
themselves  to  Him  in  faith  and  come  to  God  through 
Him.  This  makes  it  possible  for  God  also  to  deal 


94          THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

with  them  all  in  Christ  and  graciously  to  impute  the 
obedience  of  the  One  to  them  all.  In  Christ,  God 
looks  graciously  upon  them  and  transfers  them  to  the 
happy  condition  of  reconciliation  with  Himself.  The 
relation  of  God  to  the  race  has,  therefore,  by  the  death 
of  Jesus  become  an  essentially  different  one.  This  One 
offers  to  God  in  His  own  person  a  guarantee  of  the 
establishment  of  a  new  community  of  human  beings  ac- 
ceptable in  His  sight,  just  as  He  also  in  His  own  per- 
son furnishes  to  men  a  guarantee  of  the  grace  of  God, 
which,  for  the  sake  of  this  One,  will  no  longer  cast  out  the 
most  abandoned  sinner. 

This  is  the  blessed  Glad  Tidings  which  the  cross  of 
Jesus  proclaims  to  us.  It  is  still  operative  to-day,  and 
still  proves  its  power  as  in  the  days  of  the  apostles 
when  it  was  first  announced  in  the  world.  We  would 
cut  out  the  central  page  of  the  Gospel  if  we  were  to 
omit  the  confession  of  the  sufferings  and  death  of  Jesus. 
As  long  as  there  are  human  hearts  that,  under  the  burden 
of  their  guilt  and  the  hard  reality  of  sin,  yearn  for  for- 
giveness and  salvation;  as  long  as  distressed  consciences 
cry  out  of  the  depths,  "Whither  shall  we  fly  to  find  a  rest- 
ing place,"  so  long  will  be  heard  also  the  prayer  of  faith, 
"To  Thee,  Lord  Christ,  alone.  Shed  has  been  Thy 
precious  blood,  which  atones  for  sin."  There  is  nothing 
else  to  comfort  and  cheer  us  in  the  hour  of  trial  but  the 
looking  up  in  faith  to  the  Crucified.  To  the  symbol 
of  His  death  we  look  up  in  the  dark  night  of  trouble 
and  adversity,  beneath  it  we  would  place  our  couch  in 
the  hours  of  pain  and  death.  And  when  our  senses  fail 
us  and  the  enemy  assails  the  citadel  of  life,  then  will  we 
take  refuge  beneath  the  triumphant  banner  of  the  cross 
of  Jesus,  and,  looking  unto  Him,  depart  in  peace. 

But  if  our  dying  has  by  His  death  been  transformed 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED          95 

into  a  blessed  journey  homeward,  so,  too,  has  His  resting 
in  the  grave  sanctified  our  graves  and  hallowed  them  as 
beds  in  which  to  sweetly  slumber.  The  burial  of  Jesus 
is  expressly  mentioned  in  our  Creed,  just  as  Paul  has 
also  cited  it  among  the  chief  articles  of  Christian  teach- 
ing, (i  Cor.  15  .-4.)  The  more  the  Church  found  occa- 
sion to  empasize  the  reality  of  the  death  of  Christ  in  re- 
futal  of  the  Docetic  absurdities,  the  more  important  it 
became  for  her  to  point  to  His  burial.  This  serves  as  in- 
dubitable confirmation  of  His  death.  But  the  Church 
also  derives  great  comfort  from  the  burial  of  Christ 
when  she  carries  her  own  deceased  members  to  the  grave. 
As  certainly  as  our  Lord  and  Head  rested  for  but  a  little 
time  in  the  bosom  of  the  earth  in  order  that  He  might 
very  soon  arise  to  enter  upon  the  life  of  celestial  glory, 
just  as  surely  does  the  hope  of  the  resurrection  hover 
above  the  graves  of  our  dead  who  have  fallen  asleep  in 
Him.  They  rest  in  the  tomb  like  quiet  sleepers  until, 
after  a  brief  slumber,  they  shall  be  awakened  for  the 
blessed  life  of  eternity. 

In  immediate  connection  with  the  burial  of  Jesus 
stands  the  further  declaration,  that  He  "descended  into 
hell."  This  frequently  assailed  and  greatly  misunder- 
stood clause  is  one  of  the  most  recent  additions  to  the 
Creed.  It  was  not  inserted  until  the  fourth  century. 
But  the  doctrine  to  which  it  gives  expression  reaches 
back  to  the  earliest  days  of  Christianity  and  has  a  distinct 
basis  in  the  teachings  of  the  New  Testament.  (Acts  2  : 
26ff. ;  i  Peter  3  :  19.)  According  to  the  simple  meaning 
of  the  words,  it  declares  no  more  than  that  Jesus  after 
His  death  descended  into  the  realm  of  the  dead,  to  the 
place  where  departed  souls  await  the  day  of  the  eter- 
nal consummation.*  In  this  sense,  the  clause  is  only  a 

*  The  Lutheran  Church  holds  the  view,  based  upon  her  inter- 


96          THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

parallel  statement  of  the  preceding  "buried."  Like  the 
latter,  it  then  serves  only  to  attest  the  reality  and  com- 
pleteness of  the  actual  death  of  Jesus.  As  He  has  shared 
all  experiences  with  the  race  of  men,  and  become  like 
them  in  all  points,  so  also  He  has  not  been  spared  this 
most  profound  depth  of  degradation.  While  His  dead 
body  was  lying  in  the  grave,  the  soul  of  the  deceased  de- 
scended into  the  realm  of  the  dead — not,  indeed,  into 
"hell,"  in  order  there  to  endure  on  account  of  our  sins 
the  tortures  of  the  lost,  but  to  the  blessed  locality  of  Para- 
dise, to  the  rest  of  those  who  have  overcome.  (Luke  23  : 
43.)  Yet  this  clause  is  not  simply  auxiliary  to  the  an- 
nouncement of  the  burial  of  Christ,  with  no  further 
religious  interest  attaching  to  it.  There  was  connected 
with  it  already  in  the  earliest  days  of  the  Church  the  idea 
that  Jesus  in  His  state  of  death  was  not  purely  passive, 
but  announced  Himself  in  the  power  of  His  living  spirit 
to  the  departed  saints,  who  were  waiting  for  deliverance, 
as  the  Victor  over  death  and  hell.  This  view,  traces  of 
which  are  found  also  in  the  New  Testament,  gives  ex- 
pression to  one  of  the  most  comforting  and  inspiring 
truths  of  our  faith  which  we  cannot  afford  to  overlook. 
It  acknowledges  Jesus  Christ  as  the  One  who  is  Lord 
over  the  living  and  the  dead,  the  Redeemer  of  them  all. 
Even  to  those  who  had  died  before  His  coming  to  earth 
He  goes  as  the  Deliverer.  The  benefit  of  His  redeem- 
ing work  shall  extend  to  them  also,  in  order  that  He  may 
lead  them  with  Himself  out  of  death  to  eternal  life  in 
the  kingdom  of  the  divine  glory. 


pretation  of  the  Scripture  passages  involved,  that  Christ,  in  the 
interval  between  His  burial  and  resurrection,  manifested  Him- 
self also  to  the  spirits  of  the  lost.  In  her  usage  of  the  term 
"hell,"  or  "Hades,"  in  the  Creed,  she,  therefore,  includes  this 
idea.  Tr. 


CHAPTER  VII 
On  the  Third  Day  He  Rose  Again  from  the  Dead 

BY  DR.  L.  IHMELS 

PROFESSOR  OF  DOGMATICS  AND  ETHICS  AT  LEIPSIC 

I.  Christian  preaching  has  been  from  the  first  a  preach- 
ing of  the  resurrection  of  Jesus.  In  its  very  earliest  be- 
ginnings it  was,  indeed,  more  largely  a  preaching  of  the 
resurrection  than  of  the  cross  of  Christ.  The  course  of 
development  of  the  disciples  themselves,  as  well  as  the 
needs  of  their  Jewish  hearers,  will  account  for  this.  It 
was  only  from  the  open  grave  of  Jesus  that  the  disciples 
found  their  way  to  the  cross  of  their  Master,  and  they 
by  an  inner  necessity  led  their  first  hearers  upon  the 
same  path.  How  can  one  who  has  died  upon  the  ac- 
cursed tree  be  the  Messiah? — even  the  pious  in  Israel 
could  not  answer  this  question.  The  awakening  of  Jesus 
from  death  brought  the  divine  reply,  and  it  must,  there- 
fore, be  first  of  all  attested. 

Read  but  the  first  Christian  sermon  preached  on  earth, 
that  at  Pentecost.  What  had  long  been  known  to  all  as 
a  report,  Peter  now  preached  with  the  power  of  a  divine 
message  demanding  faith,  namely,  that  God  has  awak- 
ened from  the  dead  the  Christ  who  was  crucified  by 
the  leaders  of  the  nation  and  made  Him  Lord  and  Christ. 
With  increasing  dismay,  in  some  cases  with  the  gnash- 
ing of  teeth,  the  multitude  listened,  and  all  who  were 
convinced  by  the  witness  to  the  resurrection  became  be- 
lieving Christians.  Faith  in  the  Lord  rested  upon  con- 
viction of  the  reality  of  the  resurrection. 
7  97 


98          THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

Missionary  preaching  among  the  Gentiles  necessarily 
pursued  different  lines,  but  even  here  the  testimony  to  the 
resurrection,  together  with  the  preaching  of  the  death 
of  'Christ,  formed  the  principal  item  in  the  message  de- 
livered. These  two  articles  constituted  the  central  ele- 
ment in  the  Gospel  which  Paul  brought  to  the  Corinth- 
ians, according  to  his  own  express  testimony :  "Died  for 
our  sins  according  to  the  scriptures,  .  .  .  raised  on  the 
third  day."  (i  Cor.  15  : 3,  4.)  And  it  is  just  in  this  con- 
nection that  Paul  emphasizes  the  fact  that  he  has  only 
delivered  to  others  that  which  he  had  himself  received. 
It  is  one  of  the  best  attested  facts  of  history  that  the 
first  Christian  Church  not  only  believed  in  the  resurrec- 
tion of  Christ,  but  regarded  it  as  one  of  the  foundations 
of  its  faith — yes,  in  a  definite  sense,  the  sense  in  which 
Paul  enlarges  upon  the  thought  in  the  further  course  of 
the  fifteenth  chapter  of  First  Corinthians,  the  foundation. 
If  there  was  no  resurrection  of  Christ,  then  there  is  no 
ground  for  faith  in  the  forgiveness  of  sins  in  Christ, 
all  faith  is  in  vain,  and  the  Corinthians  are  yet  in  their 
sins. 

Nor  can  there  be  any  doubt  that  the  whole  primitive 
Church  regarded  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  as  a  bodily 
resurrection.  It  may,  indeed,  be  very  seriously  asked 
whether  any  clear  idea  can  at  any  time  be  connected 
with  the  conception  of  a  non-bodily  resurrection,  but,  at 
all  events,  the  disciples  never  thought  of  any  other  than 
a  bodily  resurrection.  With  a  sedulous  care  that  is  un- 
mistakable, the  Gospel  narrative  gives  prominence  to  the 
fact  that  the  appearances  of  the  Lord  after  the  cruci- 
fixion were  bodily.  (Luke  24  : 39;  John  20  :  17.)  Paul 
also  regarded  the  matter  in  the  same  way.  Evidence  of 
this  is  seen  in  the  way  in  which,  in  attestation  of  his 
apostleship,  he  openly  places  his  seeing  of  the  Lord  in 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED          99 

the  same  category  as  that  of  the  apostles  during  the 
earthly  life  of  Jesus,  (i  Cor.  9:1.)  The  same  conclu- 
sion follows  from  an  observation  of  the  manner  in  which 
he  presents  the  resurrection  of  believers  as  parallel  with 
that  of  Christ.  (Rom.  8  :  n;  i  Cor.  15.)  And  when, 
in  i  Cor.  15  : 4,  he  inserts  the  burial  of  the  Lord  directly 
between  the  fact  of  His  death  and  the  miracle  of  the 
resurrection,  can  anyone  possibly  understand  this  in  any 
other  way  than  as  asserting  that  the  Jesus  who  died  upon 
the  cross  and  whose  body  was  then  laid  in  the  grave 
arose  from  this  grave? 

Paul,  indeed,  in  this  very  chapter,  declares  that  we 
must  not  think  of  the  bodily  form  to  which  the  deceased 
life  is  awakened  as  a  material  one,  in  the  sense  of  our 
present  body,  and  the  Gospels  evidently  entertain  the 
same  view.  We  should,  therefore,  not  be  surprised  to  find 
in  the  accounts  given  in  the  Gospels  of  the  appearances 
of  the  Risen  One  features  which  remove  the  bodily  form 
of  the  Lord  from  subjection  to  the  natural  limitations 
of  our  material  bodies.  There  certainly  remain  for  us 
open  questions  at  this  as  at  other  points  in  the  Gospel 
records.  But  we  should  distinctly  recognize  the  fact 
that  if  the  resurrection  of  Jesus,  with  His  consequent  ap- 
pearance to  His  disciples,  is  indeed  a  reality,  then  these 
appearances  must  of  necessity  have  a  certain  dual  char- 
acter. Instead  of  taking  offence  at  this,  we  would  do 
better  to  inquire  whether  we  may  not  rather  here  learn 
something  in  regard  to  the  nature  of  the  glorified  body 
which  we  expect  one  day  to  have  as  our  own.  .At  all 
events,  the  difficulties  are  inherent  in  the  fact  itself  and 
it  should  be  self-evident  that  they  should  not  be  made  an 
excuse  for  the  denial  of  the  fact.  The  first  witnesses, 
who  alone  saw  the  Lord,  were  not  led  by  the  dual  char- 
acter of  His  appearances  to  doubt  their  reality.  The 


100    THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

Gospel  narratives,  indeed,  make  it  evident  that  even  they 
found  questions  here  which  they  could  not  answer;  but 
this  very  fact  enhances  our  confidence  in  the  result,  i.e., 
their  immediate  and  continuous  testimony:  "The  Cruci- 
fied One  is  risen." 

The  Crucified  One  is  risen.  This  is  the  absolute  cer- 
tainty by  which  the  disciples  were,  in  the  striking  lan- 
guage of  Peter,  "born  again  unto  a  living  hope."  If 
anyone  was  ever  dead  to  all  hope,  it  was  the  disciples 
after  the  death  of  their  Master.  That  they  could  be 
once  more  born  again  to  a  living  hope  is  a  miracle  no  less 
amazing  than  that  of  the  resurrection  itself.  But  this 
second  miracle,  experienced  by  the  disciples,  rests  upon 
the  former  one,  the  resurrection  of  the  Lord.  Just  so 
Paul  views  it.  When  he  claims  for  those  who  are  in 
Christ  Jesus  nothing  less  than  that  for  them  all  things 
have  become  new,  he  has  in  mind  Jesus,  who  Himself 
once  for  all  died  to  sin  in  order  that  He  might  thence- 
forth enter  upon  a  new  life.  All  that  inspires  Paul's 
inner  life  depends  in  the  last  analysis  upon  the  fact 
that  he  can  to  the  terrible  reality  which  he  sees  in  the 
world  out  of  Christ,  with  triumphant  faith,  oppose  the 
other  certainty:  "But  now  is  Christ  risen  from  the  dead." 
Dare  we  think  otherwise  ?  And  must  we  ? 

II.  Must  we  then  to-day  surrender  the  faith  of  the 
first  disciples  in  the  resurrection?  So  we  are  told.  No 
support  can,  indeed,  be  found  for  this  demand  in  any 
newly-discovered  facts.  Upon  the  contrary,  the  history 
of  the  Church  of  Jesus  justifies  the  Easter  faith.  Every- 
thing in  the  Church  proclaims  aloud  that  the  Crucified 
One  is  alive.  Even  those  who  are  unable  to  appreciate 
the  religious  reality  which  we  designate  as  the  Easter 
faith  must  find  it  a  matter  for  serious  consideration  that 
the  whole  Church  of  Christ  has  from  the  beginning  to  the 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED        101 

present  day  been  filled  with  strength  and  courage  as  it 
has  stood  by  the  open  grave.  Can  this  be  self-deception  ? 
What  would  then  become  of  our  faith  in  divine  provi- 
dence ?  It  will  not  do  to  say  that  in  view  of  certain  claims 
of  other  religions  the  same  conclusions  might  be  drawn. 
In  fact,  every  careful  investigation  will  always  make  it 
only  the  more  manifest  that  none  of  the  analogies  which 
might  be  cited  from  other  religions  really  in  any  possibly 
comparable  way  suggest  such  a  question.  An  association 
of  men  which  from  the  third  day  onward  testifies  that 
its  Lord  who  died  upon  the  cross  is  risen,  and  persists 
in  this  testimony  throughout  the  centuries,  and  in  this 
testimony  is  justified  by  the  divine  approval — where  in 
all  religious  history  could  anything  at  all  similar  to  this 
be  found? 

Certainly  no  appeal  can  be  taken  to  the  history  of  the 
Church  to  justify  the  rejection  of  the  Easter  faith.  With 
all  the  more  emphasis,  however,  is  it  claimed  that  the  ad- 
vance of  scholarship  in  other  departments  has  niade  im- 
possible the  naive  Easter-faith  of  the  early  disciples. 
It  is  the  progress  made  in  the  field  of  natural  science 
which  is  here  especially  had  in  view.  To  state  the  posi- 
tion distinctly,  it  is  held  that  our  knowledge  of  the  fixed 
laws  which  control  all  occurrences  makes  the  recognition 
of  a  miracle  impossible.  Hence  it  follows  that  the  Easter 
faith  must  disappear.  This  is  certainly  a  very  summary 
way  of  disposing  of  the  matter.  But,  in  any  event,  its 
assault  is  not  only  upon  the  Easter  fact,  but  it  raises 
the  question  whether  this  whole  theory  of  the  impos- 
sibility of  the  miraculous  must  not  submit  to  correction 
in  view  of  the  Easter  miracle.  Uhlhorn  at  one  time,  con- 
ducting a  general  investigation  of  the  miraculous,  made 
the  issue  to  depend  upon  an  investigation  of  the  reality 
of  the  resurrection  of  Jesus.  In  fact,  when  discussing 


102        THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

the  question  of  miracles,  we  should  inquire  much  more 
diligently  concerning  the  reality  than  concerning  the 
possibility  of  the  miracle  in  question.  Of  what  avail  is 
all  challenging  of  the  possibility  if  the  reality  is  proved? 
The  assertion  of  the  possibility  or  impossibility  of  a  thing 
can  never  decide  the  question  of  its  reality.  The  reality, 
as  a  matter  of  course,  renders  the  final  decision  as  to  the 
possibility.  I  do  not  forget,  indeed,  that  in  the  personal 
attitude  to  be  assumed  by  any  individual,  the  theory  of 
the  universe  which  he  has  espoused  will,  without  doubt, 
unconsciously  play  a  part.  But,  in  the  appraisement  of 
historical  material,  personal  theories  must  just  on  this 
account  be  rigorously  excluded.  But  how  shall  the  ques- 
tion whether  a  particular  view  of  the  universe  can  stand 
the  test  of  reality  be  decided  if  it  may  be  decreed  in  ad- 
vance just  what  is  reality  and  what  is  not?  In  the  criti- 
cism of  historical  material,  only  historical  considerations 
must  be  allowed  to  decide. 

But  it  is  precisely  such  considerations  that  are  sup- 
posed to  lay  the  Gospel  reports  open  to  the  most  serious 
suspicion.  Attention  is  called  to  the  difficulties  encoun- 
tered in  deriving  from  the  accounts  in  the  Gospels  a  con- 
sistent conception  .  of  the  resurrection  of  Jesus.  The 
discrepancies  in  the  narratives  of  the  evangelists,  it  is 
said,  had  been  long  ago  observed,  but  our  more  carefully 
trained  critical  judgment  is  more  seriously  impressed  by 
them.  But  we  are  fully  justified  in  reminding  the  critics 
that  an  entire  outward  agreement  between  the  various 
reports  would  at  once  awaken  the  gravest  suspicions. 
At  all  events,  however  seriously  the  difficulties  referred 
to  may  be  regarded,  they  cannot  throw  any  doubt  upon 
the  essential  fact  that  the  disciples  believed  that  they 
saw  their  Risen  Lord.  This  being  the  case,  our  sources 
furnish  no  ground  for  subjecting  this  fact  to  any  different 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED        103 

tests  from  those  applied  in  estimating  other  historical 
facts.  No  one  would  in  our  day  venture  to  doubt  that 
there  were  really  "appearances"  of  the  Lord  to  His  dis- 
ciples; but  the  latter  may  have  been  self-deceived,  mis- 
taking visionary  appearances  for  the  real  bodily  presence 
of  the  Risen  One.  No  ground  whatever  for  such  an  inter- 
pretation can  be  detected  in  our  sources.  To  support  it, 
appeal  would  have  to  be  taken  to  the  dual  nature  of  the 
appearances  of  Jesus;  but  we  have  already  seen  that  this 
is  perfectly  intelligible  upon  the  ground  that  Jesus  arose 
in  a  glorified  body.  Still  less  does  the  testimony  of  Paul 
afford  any  point  of  attachment  for  such  a  peculiar  critical 
method.  It  evidently  means  to  report  real  personal  in- 
tercourse with  the  risen  Christ,  and  it  furnishes  no  pos- 
sible ground  upon  which  to  extract  from  it,  as  the  real 
fact  in  the  case,  a  series  of  visionary  appearances.  The 
attempt  may  be  made  to  prove,  if  it  be  thought  possible 
to  do  so,  that  the  New  Testament  tradition  of  appear- 
ances of  the  risen  Saviour  is  unreliable.  But  if  this  be 
not  attempted,  it  should  then  be  acknowledged  that  the 
record  furnishes  no  critical  criterion  which  will  really 
justify  the  reduction  of  this  positive  assertion  of  repeated 
personal  intercourse  with  the  risen  Lord  to  a  conscious- 
ness of  subjective  experiences.  There  are,  however,  the 
best  of  reasons  for  freely  acknowledging  that  there  were 
actual  appearances  of  the  Lord.  Whatever  serious  mis- 
givings there  might  be  in  the  minds  of  any  as  to  the  re- 
port of  the  evangelists,  the  testimony  of  Paul,  at  least, 
cannot  be  shaken. 

The  real  facts  of  the  case,  for  the  honest  investigator, 
are  as  follows:  Immediately  after  the  death  of  Jesus, 
the  disciples  believed  that  they  had  seen  Him  alive  again. 
This  was  not  the  experience  of  one  man,  but,  according 
to  the  testimony  of  Paul,  that  of  more  than  five  hundred 


104        THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

upon  one  occasion.  If  the  event  were  not  so  unusual  and 
so  immense  in  its  significance,  who  would  ever  have 
thought  of  simply  pushing  aside  such  overwhelming  evi- 
dence? No  one  would  to-day  be  disposed  to  cast  any 
suspicion  upon  the  honesty  of  the  disciples.  The  hypoth- 
esis of  a  willful  deception  upon  their  part  finds  very 
few  and  solitary  adherents  in  this  age.  But  it  is  just  as 
much  an  error  to  question  the  competency  of  the  disciples 
to  render  testimony  in  the  case.  Even  some  scholars 
who  do  not  upon  general  principles  exclude  in  advance 
everything  miraculous  think  it  necessary  to  remind  us 
how  easily  the  credulous  men  of  that  day  might  have 
been  misled  by  an  illusion  which  could  not  by  any  pos- 
sibility deceive  us  in  view  of  our  advanced  scientific  in- 
sight. Such  suggestions,  in  reality,  can  only  serve  to 
confuse  a  subject  infinitely  simple,  although  infinitely 
great.  It  requires,  really,  no  extraordinary  scientific 
training  to  establish  the  fact  for  proof  of  which  we  look 
to  the  disciples.  Let  it  be  remembered  that  they  but  a 
few  days  before  had  eaten  and  drunk  with  this  man, 
that  they  had  been  witnesses  of  His  death,  and  that  they 
knew  all  about  the  grave  in  which  His  dead  body  had 
been  placed.  Would  not  these  men  be  in  a  position  to 
become  fully  satisfied  among  themselves  whether  that 
grave  was  empty  and  whether  He  who  had  died  on  the 
cross  was  really  alive  again,  walking  and  talking  with 
them  ?  One  would  think  that  it  should  be  necessary  only 
to  transfer  the  entire  series  of  events  in  thought  to  the 
immediate  present  to  convince  the  most  reluctant  that 
under  such  circumstances  the  most  simple-minded  of  men 
would  be  in  position  to  reach  a  reliable  conclusion. 

At  all  events,  it  is  evident  that  the  sober  testimony  of 
the  first  disciples  cannot  be  nullified  by  the  suggestion  of 
visionary  appearances.  Could  even  the  possibility  of  such 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED    105 

a  series  of  visions  in  the  case  of  the  disciples  be  seriously 
entertained?  Visions  presuppose  a  certain  susceptibil- 
ity. What  trace  of  such  a  susceptibility  can  we  detect 
in  the  disciples,  who  were  on  the  preceding  Friday  in 
a  state  of  complete  collapse?  And  if  it  be  maintained 
that  their  depression  had  given  place  to  a  new  hope,  how 
can  it  be  seriously  believed  that  this  could  be  possible 
within  three  days?  But  these  three  days  must  be  taken 
into  acount.  The  difficulties  inseparable  from  this  theory 
of  subjective  visions  are  so  great  that  there  is  a  dispo- 
sition in  many  quarters  to  surrender  it  in  favor  of  the 
so-called  theory  of  objective  visions.  This  assumes  vari- 
ous forms.  In  the  general,  and  certainly  the  most  plausi- 
ble form,  it  maintains  that  God  awakened  in  the  disciples 
the  conviction  that  Jesus  was  still  living,  and  this  convic- 
tion embodied  itself  in  visions.  This  furnishes  an  answer 
to  the  question,  how  the  Easter  conviction  was  awakened 
in  the  minds  of  the  disciples — but  who  cannot  see  that 
we  are  thus  only  substituting  a  miracle  of  which  we  know 
nothing  for  one  which  has  been  well  attested?  Above 
all,  do  we  not  thus  make  God,  who  is  supposed  by  His 
inner  influence  upon  the  disciples  and  the  resultant 
visions  to  have  awakened  in  their  minds  the  idea  of  the 
bodily  resurrection  of  Jesus,  the  originator  of  a  pious 
fraud  ?  And  upon  this,  we  are  asked  to  believe,  rests  the 
Easter  conviction,  and  with  it,  in  the  last  instance,  the 
Church  itself !  It  is  incredible. 

Moreover,  even  if  the  force  of  these  objections  to  the 
theory  of  visions  be  not  admitted,  it  could,  at  best,  account 
for  no  more  than  the  possibility  of  their  occurrence,  and 
there  would  still  remain  a  long  step  to  be  taken,  i.e.,  from 
the  possibility  to  the  actual  fact  of  their  existence.  To 
begin  with,  it  must  be  admitted  to  be  improbable  that 
these  men  were  really  not  in  a  condition  to  discriminate 


106    THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

between  visions  and  real  appearances  of  their  Lord.  We 
know  how  intimately  familiar  Paul  was  with  visions  and 
how  moderate  he  was  in  the  estimate  placed  upon  them. 
(2  Cor.  12  :  iff.)  Peter,  too,  knew  what  visions  were 
from  his  own  experience.  How,  then,  could  these  men 
have  been  so  utterly  deceived  in  their  estimate  of  the 
appearance  of  their  risen  Lord?  And  how  was  it  with 
the  five  hundred  who  together  saw  the  Lord?  It  would 
be  hard  enough  to  imagine  how  these  five  hundred  could 
all  have  had  the  experience  of  a  vision  at  the  same  time ; 
but  it  would  be  totally  inconceivable  that  they  should 
all  have  mistaken  this  experience  for  an  actual  seeing 
of  the  Lord  and  never  afterward  have  discovered  their 
mistake. 

But,  at  all  events,  to  whatever  extent  liability  to  self- 
deception  may  be  attributed  to  these  first  witnesses,  it 
must  be  ever  borne  in  mind  that  our  sources  give  no 
countenance  whatever  to  any  such  theory.  On  the  con- 
trary, it  is  but  fair  to  say  that  by  the  visions-theory  their 
testimony  is  at  the  decisive  point  exactly  reversed;  for 
there  can  be  no  possible  doubt  of  the  fact  that  for  them 
the  Easter  conviction  was  produced  solely  by  the  appear- 
ances of  the  Lord.  This  point,  at  least,  is  settled,  what- 
ever may  be  the  judgment  passed  upon  the  Gospel  narra- 
tives in  other  particulars.  But  this  is  a  direct  contra- 
diction of  the  claims  of  the  visions-theories,  which  all 
rest  upon  the  supposition  that  the  disciples  were  con- 
vinced beforehand  of  the  continued  existence  of  Jesus, 
and  that  this  conviction  embodied  itself  in  visions.  To 
state  the  matter  concisely :  According  to  the  reports  actu- 
ally given,  the  appearances  of  the  Lord  came  first  and 
the  Easter-faith  of  the  disciples  was  the  result;  in  these 
theories  the  Easter-faith  comes  first  and  the  appearances 
are  the  result.  If  anyone  wishes  to  advocate  such  a  view, 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED        107 

let  him  openly  acknowledge  that  he  is  dealing  only  with 
suggestions  made  in  his  own  name. 

It  remains  to  be  noted  that  the  positive  conviction  of 
the  first  disciples  has  a  strong  ally  in  another  witness — 
the  open  grave.  The  reference  to  this  is  very  distasteful 
to  the  opponents  of  the  faith  of  believers  in  the  resur- 
rection, and  they  would  prefer  to  push  aside  as  an  irrel- 
evant matter  the  question  as  to  the  open  grave.  There 
is  all  the  more  reason  on  that  account  why  we  should 
not  pass  it  by.  No  one  can  overthrow  the  fact  that  the 
grave  must  have  been  empty.  How  easily  could  not  their 
enemies  otherwise  have  convinced  the  disciples  of  the 
falsity  of  their  testimony!  And  does  anyone  seriously 
believe  it  possible  that  the  disciples  would  have  ventured 
to  proclaim  the  resurrection  if  the  grave  might  have  been 
at  any  moment  summoned  as  a  witness  against  them? 
The  grave  must  have  been  empty.  But  how  did  it  be- 
come so?  We  have  already  seen  that  no  one  in  our  day 
would  be  disposed  to  attribute  deception  to  the  disciples 
and  friends  of  Jesus.  But  their  enemies  would  certainly 
not  first  have  removed  the  body  and  then  have  kept 
silent  about  it.  There  remains  only  one  other  possible  ex- 
planation, i.e.,  that  some  unknown  persons  for  unknown 
reasons  removed  the  body  and  then  remained  perfectly 
silent  when  the  news  of  the  resurrection  was  perplexing 
the  minds  of  all  about  them.  It  has  been  well  said  that 
whoever  would  venture  to  hang  upon  this  thread  the 
weight  of  an  event  of  world-wide  significance  and  in- 
fluence is  at  liberty  to  do  so. 

III.  Certain  it  is  that  in  our  day  we  have  no  occa- 
sion to  question  the  reality  of  the  resurrection.  Dare  we 
then  fail  to  emphasize  it?  To  ask  the  question  is  to 
answer  it.  It  must  be  acknowledged  that,  even  if  we 
could  not  understand  the  significance  of  the  resurrection 


108        THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

of  Jesus,  we  would  not  be  at  liberty  to  keep  silent  in  view 
of  the  divine  glory  which  is  here  revealed.  But,  in  real- 
ity, we  find  an  echo  in  our  own  experience  to  the  asser- 
tion of  the  apostle  Paul:  Without  Easter,  no  Good  Fri- 
day ;  without  Easter,  no  eternal  life  begun  in  time ;  with- 
out Easter,  no  glorious  consummation  of  life  in  eternity. 
"But  now  is  Christ  risen  from  the  dead." 

Easter  brings  us  the  first  complete  assurance  of  the  fact 
of  our  reconciliation  with  God.  It  is  true,  the  Son  of 
God  on  Good  Friday  died  with  the  triumphant  announce- 
ment, "It  is  finished."  But  it  was  only  Easter  that 
brought  the  divine  response.  This  involves  the  second 
great  truth :  Easter  assures  us  that  we  have  a  living 
Saviour,  who  is  our  Advocate  before  the  throne  of  God ; 
who  safely  leads  His  Church  by  His  almighty  hand 
through  the  scenes  of  time;  and  who  fills  us  early  with 
His  Spirit  in  order  that  we  may  have  life  in  Him.  Easter 
assures  us,  finally,  of  the  consummation  of  all  life  and 
the  conquest  of  death.  If  our  Lord  is  "the  firstfruits  of 
them  that  are  asleep,"  we  may  find  unfailing  comfort  in 
His  own  words,  "Because  I  live,  ye  shall  live  also." 

In  all  of  this,  it  must  be  remembered,  we  are  speaking 
of  a  resurrection  in  the  literal  sense  of  the  word.  Our 
sources  know  absolutely  nothing  of  any  other,  and  this 
alone  should  be  decisive.  But  we  have  also  the  most 
profound  religious  interest  in  the  maintenance  of  this 
view.  We  are  often,  indeed,  asked  whether  it  would  not 
have  practically  the  same  religious  significance  for  us 
if  we  could  speak  only  of  a  spiritual  continuance  of  the 
life  of  Jesus.  To  this  it  must  be  our  unvarying  reply  that 
our  religious  interest  would  thus  be  imperiled  in  a  three- 
fold way.  In  the  first  place  and  chiefly,  any  other  than  a 
bodily  resurrection  could  never  have  the  power  of  a  his- 
torical fact.  Whatever  it  might  be  thought  possible  to  be- 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED        109 

lieve  in  regard  to  a  spiritual  resurrection,  the  impressive 
"It  is  finished,"  with  which  the  Son  of  God  entered  the 
realm  of  death,  would  thus  remain  without  any  divine 
response  in  actual  history.  It  is  difficult  to  realize  the 
full  force  of  this  consideration.  If  the  denial  of  the 
bodily  resurrection  is  seriously  meant,  nothing  then  re- 
mains except  the  idea  of  a  continued  spiritual  existence. 
Whatever  effort  may  be  made  to  conceal  this  in  various 
ways,  it  is  in  reality  an  inevitable  consequence.  But  this 
means  that,  in  the  realm  of  history,  the  grave  has  the 
last  word,  and  the  stupendous  claim  made  by  Jesus  at 
His  death  remains  unjustified.  With  this  is  connected  the 
further  thought  that  we  can  have  no  real  conception  of  a 
continued  effectual  life  of  the  Man  Jesus,  if  we  are  to 
think  only  of  a  spiritual  existence.  This  is  a  matter 
of  very  especial  importance  to  us  as  Lutherans,  in  view  of 
our  conception  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  Finally,  the  as- 
surance of  the  resurrection  of  our  own  bodies  is  mani- 
festly inseparably  dependent  upon  the  bodily  resurrection 
of  Jesus.  But  we  can  no  more  surrender  our  hope  of  the 
resurrection  of  our  bodies  than  we  can  deny  that  we  as 
human  beings  consist  of  body  and  spirit.  This  means, 
therefore,  that  with  the  assurance  of  the  bodily  resur- 
rection of  Jesus  must  stand  or  fall  the  assurance  of  our 
own  immortal  life. 

In  conclusion,  it  must  be  clearly  borne  in  mind  that 
all  these  attempts  to  discredit  the  bodily  resurrection  of 
Christ  simply  ignore  the  real  facts.  It  is  fundamentally 
impious  to  be  continually  asking  whether  faith  might  not 
accommodate  itself  to  another  series  of  facts  than  those 
which  have  been  divinely  ordained.  Such  a  course  can 
serve  only  to  make  us  keenly  conscious  of  our  own  ex- 
clusion from  all  hope  of  future  blessedness.  It  may, 
indeed,  even  here  still  be  asked  whether  our  life  is,  after 


110   THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

all,  so  dependent  upon  bodily  existence.  In  reply  to  this, 
many  things  might  be  said,  but  it  is  amply  sufficient  to  ob- 
serve that  the  question  is  equivalent  to  an  inquiry  whether 
man  might  not  have  been  differently  made.  But  as  cer- 
tainly as  our  nature  is  both  bodily  and  spiritual,  so  surely 
can  we  never  cease  to  live  through  the  sure  fact  of  the 
bodily  resurrection  of  Jesus.  As  men,  such  as  God  de- 
signed us  to  be,  we  know  that  we  have  been  born  again 
to  a  living  hope. 

With   this   conviction,   we   continue   to   confess   with 
reverence  and  gratitude,  "Rose  again  from  the  dead."  * 


*For  a  more  detailed  statement  of  the  above  arguments,  see 
the  work  of  the  same  author,  "Die  Auferstehung  Jesu  Christi," 
3d  edition,  1913. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

He  Ascended  into  Heaven,  and  Sitteth  on  the  Right  Hand  of 
God,  the  Father  Almighty 

BY  DR.  A.  SCHLATTER 

PROFESSOR  OF  NEW  TESTAMENT  EXEGESIS  AT  TUEBINGEN 

With  the  words  of  Psalm  no,  "Sit  thou  at  my  right 
hand,  until  I  make  thine  enemies  thy  footstool,"  Jesus 
approached  the  cross.  He  accepted  these  words  as  writ- 
ten for  Himself,  to  show  Him  the  Father's  will  concern- 
ing Himself,  and  present  vividly  to  Him  the  goal  which 
God  had  set  before  Him.  Man  rejects  Him';  God  takes 
Him  to  Himself.  Earth  is  closed  to  Him;  heaven  is 
opened  before  Him.  The  chosen  people  condemn  Him 
as  a  sinner;  God  shares  His  throne  with  Him.  He  was 
sure  of  this  as  He  lifted  the  cross,  for  there  was  no  uncer- 
tainty in  His  mind  as  to  the  will  of  God.  As  He  had  said 
to  His  disciples  when  ambitious  to  sit  upon  the  throne, 
"It  is  for  them  for  whom  it  hath  been  prepared  of  my 
Father,"  and  thus  led  them  to  the  certainty  and  peace 
of  faith,  so  did  He  also  grasp  with  complete  assurance 
the  promise  which  designated  the  seat  in  heaven  as  His 
goal.  He  calmly  said,  "I  leave  the  world,  and  go  unto 
the  Father." 

Thus  these  words  of  the  Creed  are  but  an  echo  of  the 
testimony  which  Jesus  gave  of  Himself.  They  do  not 
form  an  invention  of  the  Church  or  a  doctrine  of  the 
apostles,  but  repeat  a  saying  of  Jesus  Himself,  and,  in 
doing  so,  conform  to  the  rule  which  must  be  inviolably 

111 


112   THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

observed  in  framing  a  confession  for  the  Church,  i.e., 
that  we  are  not  to  invent  a  confession  to  suit  our  own 
fancy,  nor  to  write  fables  nor  deal  in  mythology,  but  are 
to  receive  our  confession  from  Jesus,  and  confess  in 
regard  to  Him  what  He  has  confessed  of  Himself.  If 
we  consider  the  history  of  Jesus,  the  certainty  of  Jesus, 
the  will  of  Jesus,  the  acts  of  Jesus,  we  will  be  convinced 
that  it  is  a  perfectly  sure  reality,  just  as  imperishable 
and  indisputable  as  any  other  portion  of  history,  that  He 
who  died  is  the  same  who  ascends  to  heaven  and  sits 
at  the  right  hand  of  God.  Our  eyes,  indeed,  cannot  see 
beyond  the  earthly  history  of  Jesus,  beyond  what  He 
Himself  did  up  to  the  moment  of  His  death.  If  the  his- 
tory of  Jesus  lays  hold  upon  us,  stirs  our  hearts  and 
dominates  our  own  history — if  we  are  so  impressed  by 
His  testimony  that  it  furnishes  us  not  only  a  historical 
reminder,  but  our  confession,  this  is  more  than  percep- 
tion— it  is  faith;  more  than  a  thesis  of  scholarship — it  is 
the  confession  of  His  believing  Church. 

Will  we  deny  Him  our  confidence,  and  in  reply  to  His 
testimony  declare  that  He  was  misled  by  a  delusion  and 
unbalanced  by  a  dream  when  He  imagined  that  He  knew 
whither  He  was  going?  Can  we  do  so?  We,  who  bear 
within  us  the  words  of  Jesus  which  call  us  to  communion 
with  God,  separate  us  from  our  sinful  will,  and  make  us 
obedient  to  the  divine  love — we,  who  follow  Him  to 
the  cross  and  there  see  how  He,  in  subjection  to  the 
justice  of  God  and  in  furtherance  of  His  glorious  grace 
becomes  our  Redeemer — we  will  not  turn  away  from 
Him  when  He  directs  our  gaze  toward  heaven  as  the 
place  to  which  He  is  going,  but  will  repeat  His  testimony 
as  our  own  confession  with  joyful  assurance  and  adora- 
tion. 

This  was  the  view  of  the  disciples  of  Jesus,  and  they 


-  THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED    113 

proclaimed  His  words  as  the  message  of  the  Lord  who 
had  ascended  from  the  earth  to  heaven.  This  is  not  the 
peculiar  teaching  of  a  single  apostle,  but  the  common  con- 
viction of  them  all,  and  the  foundation  upon  which  rests 
the  entire  doctrine  of  the  Christian  Church.  If  we  were 
to  depart  from  the  Creed  at  this  point,  acknowledging 
Jesus  as  the  Christ,  our  Lord,  who  was  begotten  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  crucified  and  risen  again,  but  there  break- 
off  the  confession  and  leave  it  uncertain  where  we  are 
now  to  look  for  Him  and  what  is  the  nature  of  His 
present  relation  to  us,  we  would  utterly  shatter  our  con- 
fession of  allegiance  to  Him,  and  all  the  reminders  of 
the  history  of  Jesus  which  we  possess  would  lose  their 
significance.  The  attainment  of  the  goal  proves  that  the 
path  has  been  a  straight  one  and  the  method  of  reaching 
it  the  proper  one. 

It  was  only  because  the  disciples  were  so  sure  that 
Jesus  was  in  heaven  that  they  did  not  turn  their  eyes 
from  His  death,  but  directed  the  gaze  of  men  upon  the 
cross  as  the  place  where  the  glory  of  God  was  most  strik- 
ingly revealed.  It  is  a  strange  fact,  indeed,  and  may  well 
occasion  the  most  profound  astonishment,  that  the  cross, 
standing  in  the  midst  of  the  world's  history,  should  have 
become  the  revelation  of  perfect  and  divine  love.  How 
can  the  work  of  God  be  seen  in  the  death  of  Jesus  and 
His  cross  make  manifest  the  grace  of  God  ?  The  answer 
is :  He  passed  by  means  of  the  cross  to  the  throne  of 
God.  Because  of  this,  and  because  of  this  alone,  it  re- 
veals to  us,  not  the  law  which  decrees  that  death  shall 
be  the  penalty  of  guilt,  but  that  righteousness  of  God 
through  which  His  grace  becomes  our  portion.  Because 
of  this,  and  because  of  this  alone,  the  death  of  Jesus  be- 
comes an  effectual  transaction  of  the  Priest  who  recon- 
ciles us  to  God. 


114    THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

This  same  conviction  pervades  and  fills  also  the  Easter 
proclamation  of  the  apostles.  Realizing  that  Jesus  still 
lives,  they  know  at  once  that  He  lives  not  for  Himself,  and 
that  He  has  not  arisen  from  the  dead  in  order  that  He 
may  be  immortal  and  blessed  and  glorified,  but  that  He 
lives  for  us,  for  His  Church,  for  the  human  race,  for 
all — lives,  therefore,  as  our  Redeemer,  Saviour  and  Lord, 
through  whose  fellowship  we  have  fellowship  with  God. 
Thus  there  sprung  from  the  Easter  history  the  Gospel, 
from  the  sight  of  the  Risen  Lord,  the  faith  which  holds, 
as  a  precious  possession,  redemption  and  justification  and 
sanctification.  How  can  this  be  explained?  He  lives: 
this  proves  with  absolute  certainty  that  He  lives  in  God. 
He  lives,  therefore,  not  only  for  Himself,  since  He  lives 
by  God  and  for  God.  (Rom.  6  : 10.)  If  He  lives  with 
God,  then  He  lives  also  for  all  who  are  God's.  United 
with  God,  He  is  associated  with  the  whole  work  and  the 
whole  kingdom  of  God  and  lives  for  us.  Therefore  the 
first  Easter  Day  became  the  day  of  the  world's  redemp- 
tion, the  hour  when  the  religion  which  is  not  contention 
against  God,  but  fellowship  with  God,  was  born. 

This  purpose  of  Jesus  and  this  certainty  of  the  disciples 
are  brought  into  clear  light  by  the  fact  that  the  Risen 
Lord  brought  His  last  interview  with  His  followers  to  a 
close  by  for  their  sakes  ascending  visibly  until  the  cloud 
received  Him  out  of  their  sight.  Luke  has  thus  plainly 
indicated  both  the  goal  to  which  the  earthly  work  of 
Jesus  led  Him  and  the  foundation  upon  which  the  labors 
of  the  apostles  rested.  And  the  manner  in  which  the 
Easter  history  closed  must  certainly  have  powerfully 
aided  the  disciples  in  realizing  that  Jesus  was,  beyond 
all  doubt  or  fear,  at  the  right  hand  of  God.  Our  ex- 
periences beget  our  convictions,  and  even  a  single  event 
may,  therefore,  go  far  toward  fixing  an  opinion  in  our 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED        115 

minds.  But  we  would  have  read  the  accounts  of  Jesus 
given  by  the  disciples,  and  even  that  of  Luke,  very  care- 
lessly if  we  should  imagine  that  it  is  only  the  history 
of  the  ascension,  as  related  by  Luke,  which  attests  the 
presence  of  Jesus  with  God.  A  single  event  could  never 
produce  faith  if  it  remained  a  solitary  occurrence  and 
was  out  of  harmony  with  that  which  preceded  and  fol- 
lowed. Only  when  an  occurrence  is  bound  by  a  firm 
chain  to  earlier  and  later  events,  thus  constituting  a  con- 
sistent historical  episode,  does  it  afford  a  basis  for  the 
clear  recognition  and  positive  judgment  which  produce 
faith.  .  Because  the  disciples  of  Jesus  observed  that  in 
departing  He  extended  His  hands  over  them  in  blessing, 
they  believed  in  His  imperishable  grace.  But  they  thus 
believed,  not  only  because  of  His  benignant  attitude,  but 
because  the  last  attitude  in  which  they  beheld  Him  at 
His  departure  was  in  full  harmony  with  all  that  His  as- 
sociation with  them  had  attested  and  His  cross  made 
possible,  and  with  all  that  they  had  in  their  subsequent 
lives  received  from  Him  through  the  fellowship  of  the 
Spirit,  which  brought  to  them  in  exhaustless  fullness 
daily  supplies  of  grace.  It  was  in  this  way  that  the  visible 
ascension  of  Jesus  to  heaven  powerfully  aided  in  assur- 
ing the  disciples  that  He  was  still  in  heaven;  but  it  had 
this  power,  not  as  a  separate  occurrence,  but  because  they 
had  in  His  previous  association  with  them  learned  that 
He  was  in  the  Father  and  the  Father  in  Him,  because 
they  saw  in  their  intercourse  with  the  Risen  Lord  that 
God  had  given  Him  a  life  for  which  there  was  no  room 
on  earth,  and  because  they  in  their  subsequent  lives  dis- 
covered from  the  way  in  which  He  led  them,  inwardly  and 
outwardly,  built  up  His  Church,  and  accomplished  His 
gracious  will  concerning  them,  that  He  was  living  in 
full  communion  with  the  Father.  The  objection  some- 


116    THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

times  urged,  that  the  ascension  of  Jesus  is  related  only 
by  Luke,  cannot,  therefore,  interfere  with  our  continued 
confidence  in  the  Creed.  That  Luke  relates  it,  proves 
that  the  thoughts  of  the  disciples  continually  recurred  to 
the  last  moment  when  Jesus  was  visible  to  them,  and  con- 
firmed their  faith  in  Him  by  recalling  the  manner  of 
His  departure.  And  from  the  fact  that  no  other  evan- 
gelist relates  it,  it  is  evident  that  the  disciples  did  not  at 
this  moment  for  the  first  time  by  a  sudden  enlightenment 
grasp  the  idea  that  Jesus  was  going  to  God,  nor  was  it 
this  sight  alone  which  fixed  that  idea  so  firmly  in  their 
minds;  but  that  this  was  the  conviction  which  Jesus 
always  cherished  and  which  shone  through  all  His  inter- 
course with  His  disciples  both  before  and  after  His  death 
upon  the  cross. 

This  may  enable  us  to  understand  the  mental  attitude 
of  the  disciples  as  they  look  upward  toward  heaven  as  the 
place  where  Jesus  now  lives,  and  it  is  important  that  we 
should  appreciate  their  attitude  in  order  that  our  own 
conception  of  the  confession  which  we  make  may  be  kept 
in  harmony  with  that  which  these  witnesses  have  made. 

They  announce  to  us  that  the  path  of  Jesus  did  not 
end  in  darkness,  that  He  did  not  vanish  without  making 
it  possible  for  our  glance  to  follow  Him  and  for  us  to 
know  where  He  is  and  what  He  is.  This,  and  this  alone, 
is  their  message  to  us.  It  remains,  therefore,  far  re- 
moved from  every  approach  to  the  attitude  of  Gnosticism. 
Their  upward  glance  resting  upon  their  exalted  Lord  does 
not  impel  them  to  give  us  a  description  of  heaven  and 
describe  the  site  which  has  now  been  assigned  to  Jesus 
as  His  place.  The  message,  "Jesus  is  in  heaven,"  is 
rather  an  earnest  reminder  that  here  our  thoughts  must 
end  in  silence  and  not  venture  to  accompany  Him  into 
His  glory,  just  as  little  as  they  dare  attempt  to  describe 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED        117 

God  in  His  celestial  character.  The  way  in  which  Luke 
describes  the  departure  of  Jesus  teaches  us  the  same 
lesson,  as  the  glance  of  the  disciples  is  not  permitted  to 
follow  Jesus,  as  in  prophetic  rapture,  to  where  heaven 
is  opened  to  receive  Him,  the  spirits  in  glory  come  to 
welcome  Him,  and  He  ascends  the  throne  of  God;  but 
it  can  follow  Him  only  to  the  point  at  which  the  clouds 
conceal  Him  from  their  view.  With  this  all  the  utter- 
ances of  the  Epistles  as  to  the  glorified  nature  of  Christ 
and  His  presence  in  heaven  are  in  perfect  accord.  We 
have  nowhere  any  suggestion  approaching  the  character 
of  a  topography  of  heaven.  When  John,  speaking  as  a 
prophet,  sets  before  us  a  picture,  painted  in  vivid  colors, 
representing  Jesus  as  the  Lamb  upon  the  throne  of  God 
(Rev.  4  and  5),  it  awakens  in  our  minds  no  conjectures 
peering  with  eager  curiosity  into  heaven.  Such  a  vision 
never  implies  that  heaven  has  now  been  explored  and  a 
knowledge  gained  of  the  place  where  Jesus  lives ;  for  he 
who  utters  and  those  who  receive  the  prophecy  are  both 
perfectly  aware  that  the  prophet  is  speaking  figuratively. 
Paul,  indeed,  was  granted  a  peculiar  proof  of  the  near- 
ness of  Jesus,  being  "caught  up  even  to  the  third  heaven" ; 
but  this  does  not  affect  the  severe  simplicity  of  his  utter- 
ances concerning  heaven,  which  avoid  all  attempt  to  re- 
veal its  secrets  or  to  so  misuse  the  idea  of  the  ascension 
of  Jesus  as  to  concern  himself  about  heaven  itself  apart 
from  God  and  apart  from  Christ. 

This  reveals  most  clearly  and  impressively,  how  com- 
pletely Jesus  directed  the  love  of  His  disciples  upon  its 
central  and  only  goal — upon  the  Father,  who  grants  them 
in  the  Son  fellowship  with  Himself.  He  taught  them 
to  love  their  Father's  house  because  it  was  the  house  of 
the  Father,  not  for  the  sake  of  its  walls  and  roof.  Because 
heaven  is  the  place  where  God  dwells,  and  only  for  this 


118   THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

reason,  is  the  announcement  that  Jesus  is  in  heaven  a 
part  of  the  apostolic  Gospel  and  of  the  Church's  Creed. 
We  say  no  more  in  the  Creed  than,  "He  is  with  God"; 
but  this  we  say  with  grateful  joy. 

It  follows  that  the  scornful  taunt  of  those  who  chal- 
lenge us  to  point  out  in  the  firmament  the  place  to  which 
Jesus  has  gone,  and  remind  us  that  we  cannot  surround 
space  with  a  wall,  and  that  there  is,  therefore,  no  place 
left  for  heaven,  falls  very  wide  of  the  mark.  Such  ques- 
tions spring  from  a  shallow  curiosity  which  would  dis- 
cover where  God  is,  and  which,  disassociating  our  con- 
ception of  heaven  from  the  thought  of  God's  presence, 
would  give  to  it  an  independent  meaning.  As  to  the 
amazing  miracle,  that  space  can  have  no  bounds,  the 
natural  scientists  may  speak  if  they  desire.  The  confes- 
sion of  the  Church  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  question. 
When  we  speak  of  the  Ascension,  we  think  not  of  the 
stars  and  their  inconceivable  distances,  nor  of  the  in- 
finity of  nature,  but  alone  of  God.  Hence  heaven  vanishes 
only  for  him  for  whom  God  has  disappeared,  and  the 
ascension  of  Jesus  becomes  a  myth  only  for  him  to  whom 
Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  has  become  a  myth. 

Are  we  then  speaking  foolishly  when  we  speak  of  the 
place  where  God  is  ?  Certainly  we  are,  for  we  are  speak- 
ing humanly,  in  accordance  with  the  necessity  imposed 
upon  us  by  the  nature  of  the  consciousness  which  limits 
our  conceptions  and  from  which  we  cannot  escape.  We 
cannot  form  any  idea  from  which  the  conception  of  space 
is  excluded,  not  even  the  idea  of  God,  although  we  know 
that  we  dare  not  make  the  Creator  like  the  creature.  The 
space  in  which  we  live  gives  us  form  and  law;  God  is 
not  made  by  space,  but  makes  space.  But  just  because 
our  mode  of  speech  is  human,  it  is  right  and  necessary. 
We  should  not  wish  to  speak  in  a  superhuman  way,  nor 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED        119 

make  the  attempt  to  escape  from  the  limitations  of  our 
consciousness.  That  would  lead  only  to  phantasy  and 
delusion.  We  willingly  yield  to  the  compulsion  which 
the  law  of  our  inner  life  imposes  upon  us,  because  we 
honor  it  as  appointed  by  God,  and  we,  therefore,  speak 
of  space  even  when  thinking  of  God  and  anticipate  that 
this  necessity,  arising  from  our  natural,  though  God- 
appointed  human  state,  denotes  a  mystery  the  glory  of 
which  we  shall  clearly  see  when  the  promise  of  Jesus, 
that  we  shall  be  with  Him,  shall  have  been  fulfilled  in  us. 

Since  God  reveals  Himself  in  the  life  and  glory  of 
His  creatures,  heaven  is  further  revealed  as  the  dwelling- 
place  of  God  by  the  fact  that  it  is  the  abode  of  His 
glorious  spirits,  and  we,  with  the  apostles,  think  also  of 
these  when  we  speak  of  the  ascension  of  Jesus.  ( i  Peter 
3  :  22;  Eph.  i  :  20,  21 ;  Coi.  i  :  16.)  Jesus  stands  in  alli- 
ance not  only  with  the  human  race,  but  also  with  the 
spirits  above ;  and  His  royal  office  embraces  not  only  our 
human  history,  but  also  the  invisible  world.  Hence, 
because  in  our  thoughts  of  heaven  we  think  also  of  those 
who  serve  God  perfectly,  we  add  to  the  words,  "ascended 
into  heaven,"  the  further  defining  clause,  "Sitteth  on  the 
right  hand  of  God  the  Father."  We  thus  endeavor  to  ex- 
press in  our  figurative  human  language  the  complete  fel- 
lowship by  which  the  Father  unites  Jesus  with  Him- 
self. There  is  no  one  between  Christ  and  God.  We 
thus  confess  our  belief  in  the  completeness  of  His  divine 
Sonship:  At  the  right  hand  of  the  Father  sits  the  only 
Son. 

This  we  do  not  believe,  and  ought  not  to  believe,  so 
long  as  the  divine  Sonship  of  Jesus  is  concealed  for  us 
in  His  human  works.  If  we  assign  to  Jesus  a  place  by 
our  side  and  attribute  to  Him  a  participation  in  our 
separation  from  God,  even  though  with  the  ardent  long- 


120   THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

ing  which  hungers  for  God  but  by  that  very  fact  gives 
evidence  that  we  are  living  in  an  unreconciled  state,  then 
we  cannot  say,  "Sitteth  at  the  right  hand  of  God."  But 
it  is  possible  for  us  to  see  the  divine  Sonship  of  Jesus — 
so  to  see  it  that  we  believe  it,  and  can  understand  that 
God  is  through  it  calling  us — and  then  we  can  joyfully 
confess,  "Sitteth  at  the  right  hand  of  God."  We  then 
speak  not  of  a  half-fellowship  of  God  with  Him,  nor 
of  a  limited  love  of  the  Father  which  does  not  be- 
stow all  upon  the  Son ;  but  we  honor  the  will  of  God  in 
its  perfection,  free  from  all  partial  work,  and,  therefore, 
recognize  Jesus  as  having  no  one  above  Him  but  the 
Father,  and  the  Father  above  Him  in  such  a  way  that 
He  exalts  Him  to  Himself.  The  unfathomable  mystery 
of  the  perfected  fellowship  stands  before  us.  It  is  our 
last  view — the  summit  of  our  knowledge.  Now  we  bow 
in  silence  and  adore. 

If  we  confess  this,  it  will  determine  the  character  of 
our  faith  and  thus  also  of  our  entire  lives.  Jesus  is  in 
heaven;  this  leads  to  our  positive  subjection  under  Him 
and  marks  the  end  of  all  comradeship  with  Him,  the  re- 
jection of  every  kind  of  fellowship  which  would  drag 
Him  down  to  a  level  with  ourselves.  Because  He  is  in 
heaven,  we  do  not  divide  our  confidence  between  Him 
and  ourselves,  but  turn  it  entirely  away  from  ourselves, 
repose  it  in  Him  alone,  and  seek  our  righteousness  not  in 
ourselves  but  in  Him.  Because  He  is  in  heaven,  there  is 
due  to  Him  an  obedience  which  unhesitatingly  surrenders 
our  own  will  and  a  love  that  thinks  not  of  ourselves,  but 
lives  for  Him,  alone  for  Him. 

But  the  same  confession  which  so  clearly  expresses  the 
difference  separating  us  from  Jesus  announces,  at  the 
same  time  His  alliance  with  us  and  the  completeness  of 
the  blessings  which  He  bestows  upon  us,  which  time  can- 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED        121 

not  diminish  nor  opposition  destroy.  The  Saviour  in 
heaven  pardons  us;  His  pardon  is,  therefore,  our  right- 
eousness in  eternal  truth.  The  Saviour  in  heaven  gives 
us  His  word;  therefore  the  entrance  of  His  word  into 
our  souls  is  the  reception  of  the  Spirit,  since  the  heav- 
enly Saviour  lives  and  speaks  in  the  Spirit.  The  Saviour 
in  heaven  bids  us  believe  in  Him;  therefore  our  faith  is 
certainty  and  beyond  the  reach  of  care,  for  the  heavenly 
Saviour  will  carry  His  work  to  completion.  The  Saviour 
in  heaven  awakens  our  love ;  therefore  it  will  never  cease. 
The  gaze  of  our  love  directed  upon  Him  cannot  falter; 
for  we  can  never  exhaust  the  fullness  of  the  heavenly 
Saviour.  The  service  of  our  love  can  never  end;  for 
His  will,  which  assigns  us  our  tasks,  will  ever  impel  us 
anew.  The  adoration  of  our  love  cannot  be  silenced; 
for  His  glory  never  grows  dim.  Because  He  is  at  the 
right  hand  of  God,  He  works  in  God's  way  and  rules 
with  God's  dominion,  which  embraces  the  whole  creation 
and  every  separate  part  of  it,  the  great  and  the  small. 
When  we  confess  that  He  is  in  heaven,  we  thereby 
acknowledge  His  presence  on  earth,  extending  to  every- 
one of  us. 


CHAPTER  IX 

From  Thence  He  Shall  Come  to  Judge  the  Quick  and  the 
Dead 

BY   DR.   G.   WOHLENBERG 
PROFESSOR  OF   NEW  TESTAMENT   EXEGESIS   AT   ERLANGEN 

Thus  closes  the  second  article  of  the  Creed  with  an  in- 
comparable impressiveness  and  power,  manifest  in  the 
very  cadence  of  the  language.  Two  leading  thoughts 
are  here  presented :  First,  that  He,  the  Son  of  God,  risen 
and  ascended  to  the  right  hand  of  God,  will  come  from 
heaven — come  again,  i.e.,  to  the  place  from  which  He 
ascended ;  and,  second,  that  He  will  come  for  the  purpose 
of  holding  judgment,  and  that  both  over  those  who  may 
then  be  living  and  over  those  who  will  have  been  for  a 
longer  or  shorter  time  in  the  state  of  the  dead. 

I.  As  to  the  time  when  this  shall  occur,  the  Creed  says 
nothing.  Longingly  as  the  primitive  Church  awaited 
the  advent  of  Christ  in  glory,  fervently  as  they  prayed 
for  it,  near  as  they  positively  or  conditionally  thought  it 
to  be,  they  yet  admitted  to  the  Creed  no  syllable  as  to  the 
time,  no  indication  how  long  their  Master  in  heaven 
would  withhold  from  them  His  visible  presence  and  with- 
draw Himself  into  the  depths  of  the  divine  nature,  as 
Moses  tarried  on  Mount  Sinai  after  the  giving  of  the  law, 
hidden  from  the  view  of  the  people  and  leaving  them  to 
themselves.  In  this  we  have  another  evidence  of  spirit- 
ual tact,  of  an  amazing  power  of  discrimination.  The 
fact  of  the  second  coming  of  the  Lord  was  for  them 

122 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED        123 

immovably  established,  and  must  also  be  absolutely  and 
without  exception  confessed  by  all  who  would  join  their 
company.  The  time  when  it  should  occur  they,  mindful 
of  the  prophecies  of  the  Lord  (e.g.,  Matt.  24  136,  42ff; 
25  : 5,  6,  13,  19;  Acts  i  :  7)  and  under  the  guidance  of 
the  Spirit,  left  entirely  to  the  power  and  wisdom  of  God. 
Within  the  past  hundred  years  it  has  been  frequently 
maintained  that  the  fourth  evangelist  sought  to  supersede 
the  plastic  and  popular  view  of  the  personal  second  com- 
ing of  Christ  by  presenting  an  ideal,  spiritual  conception 
of  the  Parousia.  The  Jesus  of  the  Gospel  of  John,  it 
is  said,  knows  only  of  an  invisible  coming  of  the  glorified 
Son  of  God,  of  a  visit  to  His  followers  in  the  Holy  Spirit, 
of  a  purely  immanent  development  of  His  purely  spir- 
itual kingdom,  and  locates  the  final  judgment  in  the 
present,  in  the  inner  life  of  the  individual  believer.  It  is 
remarkable  that  the  painter  of  this  portrait  of  Jesus,  de- 
spite the  bold  and  even  revolutionary  character  of  the 
undertaking,  accomplished  nothing  by  the  attempt,  and, 
still  more  remarkable  that  the  Church  of  his  day  took 
no  notice  whatever  of  it.  It  must,  in  fact,  be  regarded 
as  a  gross  misunderstanding,  when  Jesus,  as  reported  in 
the  Gospel  of  John,  is  thought  to  have  known  nothing  and 
said  nothing  of  a  Parousia  in  keeping  with  the  prevalent 
expectation  of  the  Church.  It  may  be  granted  that  cer- 
tain utterances  in  the  Saviour's  farewell  address  are 
couched  in  general  terms,  from  which  might  be  deduced 
that  erroneous  interpretation  of  the  fourth  Gospel  ac- 
cording to  which  the  coming  of  Jesus  to  His  own  is 
always  identical  with  that  of  the  Paraclete  promised  by 
Him.  But  careful  exegesis  will  scarcely  venture  to  in- 
terpret such  a  promise  as,  "I  will  not  leave  you  desolate ; 
I  come  unto  you"  (14  :  18),  in  any  other  way  than  as  an 
advance  upon  the  idea  of  an  endowment  with  the  Spirit 


124   THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

of  truth  (v.  16)  ;  nor  will  it  be  able  to  explain  as  finding 
their  fulfillment  in  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  the  declara- 
tions :  "Yet  a  little  while,  and  the  world  beholdeth  me  no 
more;  but  ye  behold  me.  ...  I  will  manifest  myself 
unto  him"  (i.e.,  that  loveth  me).  .  .  .  "We  will  come 
unto  him  and  make  our  abode  with  him  (not  in  him)" 
(vs.  iQff.)  "A  little  while,  and  ye  behold  me  no  more; 
and  again  a  little  while  ,  and  ye  shall  see  me"  (16  :  16). 
...  "I  will  see  you  again,  and  your  hearts  shall  rejoice, 
and  your  joy  no  one  taketh  away  from  you.  And  in  that 
day  ye  shall  ask  me  no  question"  (22,  23).  .  .  .  "In  that 
day  ye  shall  ask  in  my  name :  and  I  say  not  unto  you,  that 
I  will  pray  the  Father  for  you;  for  the  Father  himself 
loveth  you,  because  ye  have  loved  me,  and  have  believed 
that  I  came  forth  from  the  Father"  (26,  27).  But,  how- 
ever these  passages  may  be  explained,  what  can  be  made 
of  the  words  of  Jesus :  "I  come  again,  and  will  receive 
you  unto  myself"  ?  And  does  not  the  author  of  the  fourth 
Gospel  report  Jesus  as  saying :  "All  that  are  in  the  tombs 
shall  hear  his  voice  and  shall  come  forth ;  they  that  have 
done  good,  unto  the  resurrection  of  life;  and  they  that 
have  done  evil,  unto  the  resurrection  of  judgment"? 
And  does  not  the  same  author  in  his  first  Epistle  speak 
of  the  time  when  Jesus  shall  be  revealed,  of  His  Parousia, 
and  of  a  future  perfecting  of  the  children  of  God  by 
virtue  of  which  they  shall  be  like  Him  when  they  shall 
see  Him  as  He  is? 

But  that  the  Jesus  of  the  synoptic  Gospels  spoke  re- 
peatedly and  unambiguously  of  a  real  and  personal  return 
upon  His  part,  cannot  easily  be  denied.  This  is,  indeed, 
a  distressing  burden  upon  the  hearts  of  those  who  are  so 
anxious  to  discover  and  acknowledge  a  Jesus  who,  as  a 
historical  personage,  shall  be  free  from  all  objections. 
But  they  will  not  succeed  either  in  showing  that  the 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED   125 

prophecies  of  Jesus  as  to  His  return  are,  one  and  all, 
ungenuine,  mere  figments  of  the  imagination  of  the  prim- 
itive Church  which  put  them  into  His  mouth,  nor  in  their 
attempt,  by  diluting  these  utterances  or  reducing  them  to 
a  vanishing  minimum  of  eschatological  ideas,  which  Jesus 
entertained  only  toward  the  close  of  His  earthly  life, 
when  He  was  Himself  perhaps  groping  His  way  in  un- 
certainty, to  depict  a  Jesus  who  might  be  more  intel- 
ligible to  our  reason  and  more  acceptable  to  our  genera- 
tion than  the  ancient  "doctrinal"  Jesus.  But  we  have 
not  been  accustomed  to  observe  such  uncertainty  at  any 
other  point  in  His  career.  And  how  should  such  a  Jesus, 
who,  finding  at  the  end  of  His  earthly  life  that  His 
work  was  not  progressing  as  He  had  hoped,  conceived 
as  a  resource  the  bold  idea  of  a  return  in  glory,  be  more 
intelligible  or  more  acceptable  to  us?  The  theory  does 
not  escape,  but  makes  the  more  inevitable,  the  dreadful 
alternative  :  Either  a  lunatic  or  the  God-man ! 

As  truly  great  men  gain  wider  experience  and  approach 
the  end  of  life,  their  judgment  generally  becomes  more 
mature  and  sober,  and  they  are  the  more  ready  to  detect 
and  acknowledge,  especially  with  respect  to  themselves, 
the  limits  of  human  ability.  And  shall  we  suppose  that 
Jesus,  in  the  very  last  days  or  weeks  before  His  death 
upon  the  cross,  deluded  Himself  and  His  disciples  with 
these  vain  hopes  ? 

II.  But  let  us  leave  these  undervaluations  of  our  Chris- 
tian faith,  and  turn  our  attention  upon  the  truth  immedi- 
ately before  us.  Jesus  is  the  future  Judge,  the  Judge 
of  the  whole  world.  Here,  too,  we  find  two  interwoven 
thoughts.  That  a  righteous  judgment  shall  at  some  time 
be  pronounced  upon  all  men,  is  an  idea  of  which  we  find 
distinct  traces  also  in  other  religions,  and  especially  in 
Israel  had  the  thought  of  a  future  judgment,  to  be  con- 


126        THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

ducted  by  Jehovah  for  both  Jew  and  Gentile,  become  so 
much  a  part  of  their  very  flesh  and  blood  that  there  was 
no  question  of  it  among  pious  Israelites.  (Rom.  3  :5f.) 
But  it  is  a  peculiar  feature  of  the  doctrine  in  our  Creed 
that  it  associates  the  conducting  of  the  last  judgment 
with  the  person  of  the  returning  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  In 
this  also  it  moves  entirely  within  the  lines  of  New  Testa- 
ment utterances  falling  from  the  lips  of  Jesus  Himself 
and  His  apostles, — even  of  His  forerunner;  whereas  in 
the  Old  Testament  it  is  Jehovah  Himself  who  conducts 
the  judgment.  John  the  Baptist  declares  of  the  mightier 
One  who  should  come  after  him  that  He  will  baptize 
with  Spirit  and  fire,  i.e.,  with  the  fire  of  the  judgment; 
that  the  fan  of  the  word  is  in  His  hand;  that  He  will 
thoroughly  cleanse  His  threshing-floor,  and  that  He  will 
gather  His  wheat  into  the  garner,  but  the  chaff  He  will 
burn  up  with  unquenchable  fire.  The  Messiahship  of  the 
coming  divine  Messenger  and  His  executive  judicial 
authority  are,  to  the  mind  of  John,  inseparably  united. 

In  illustration  of  the  teachings  of  Christ  Himself 
upon  the  subject,  we  need  cite  but  a  few  passages.  In 
the  conclusion  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  He  represents 
Himself  as  making  His  final  decision  in  the  case  of  each 
individual  dependent  not  only,  though  in  part,  upon 
whether  he  has  with  the  mouth  acknowledged  Him  as 
"Lord,  Lord !",  nor  whether  he  has  in  His  name  displayed 
charismatic  gifts ;  but,  above  all,  upon  whether  He  has 
fulfilled  the  will  of  His  heavenly  Father  in  His  moral  and 
religious  life.  But  it  is  then  He  Himself  who  will  say 
to  the  hypocritical :  "I  never  knew  you :  depart  from  me, 
ye  that  work  iniquity."  How  majestic,  though  simply 
blasphemous  on  the  lips  of  an  ordinary  mortal,  the  words 
recorded  by  Matthew :  "The  Son  of  man  shall  come  in 
the  glory  of  his  Father  with  his  angels;  and  then  shall 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED   127 

he  render  unto  every  man  according  to  his  deeds!"  In 
view  of  His  tragic  departure,  He  declares  that  terrible 
catastrophes,  embracing  also  the  powers  of  nature,  shall 
occur  as  premonitions  of  the  end,  "And  then  shall  ap- 
pear the  sign  of  the  Son  of  man  in  heaven :  and  then  shall 
all  the  tribes  of  the  earth  mourn,  and  they  shall  see  the 
Son  of  man  coming  on  the  clouds  of  heaven  with  power 
and  great  glory."  And  when  He  speaks  of  a  gathering 
of  His  elect  from  the  four  winds  of  heaven  into  His 
kingdom,  what  is  this  but  another  mode  of  expressing 
the  thought  of  judgment?  His  Parousia  will  find  men 
in  a  condition  like  that  in  the  days  of  Noah,  and  a  separa- 
tion shall  then  be  made.  One  shall  be  taken  and  the  other 
left.  How  distinct  the  prophecy :  "The  Son  of  man  shall 
send  forth  his  angels,  and  they  shall  gather  out  of  his 
kingdom  all  things  that  cause  stumbling,  and  them  that 
do  iniquity,  and  shall  cast  them  into  the  furnace  of  fire. 
There  shall  be  the  weeping  and  the  gnashing  of  teeth. 
Then  shall  the  righteous  shine  forth  as  the  sun  in  the 
kingdom  of  their  Father."  And  how  solemn  the  warn- 
ing :  "Watch  therefore :  for  ye  know  not  when  the  Lord 
of  the  house  cometh."  The  entire  prophecy  in  the  twenty- 
fourth  and  twenty-fifth  chapters  of  Matthew  must  be 
read  in  connection.  The  discourse  of  our  Lord  rises 
from  the  description  of  the  divine  judgment  which  is  to 
be  visited  upon  Jerusalem,  of  the  various  distressing  trials 
which  shall  befall  the  Church,  of  the  great  final  tribula- 
tion, to  the  Last  Judgment,  which  He  shall  Himself  con- 
duct. This  shall  occur  after  a  period  when  many  of 
His  servants  shall  have  given  themselves  over  to  frivol- 
ity because  the  time  of  waiting  is  too  long  for  them,  and 
they  say,  "Our  Lord  tarrieth";  and  these  wicked  serv- 
ants will  be  destroyed  and  receive  their  portion  with  the 
hypocrites.  The  summons  to  all  is  to  be  wise  and  faith- 


128   THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

ful.  Otherwise  there  can  be  no  admission  to  the  mar- 
riage-supper of  the  Lord.  A  distinction  appears  to  be 
made  betwneen  the  judgment  to  be  pronounced  upon  those 
who  know  and  serve  Him  and  the  general  judgment  in 
which  He  Himself,  the  Son  of  man,  will  from  the  throne 
of  His  glory  judge  all  nations  (i.e.,  those  who  are  not 
Chrisians) ;  and  those  who,  without  accounting  it  or 
desiring  it  to  be  considered  as  a  great  thing,  have  shown 
kindness  to  the  disciples  of  Jesus  will,  as  the  blessed  of 
His  Father,  enter  into  the  kingdom  prepared  for  them 
from  the  foundation  of  the  world,  whilst  those  who  have 
neglected  such  works  of  love  shall  be  committed  to  the 
eternal  fire. 

Although  Jesus  represents  Himself  as  the  Judge,  yet 
He  did  not  mean  thus  to  identify  Himself  with  God.  He 
knows  that  God  has  given  over  the  judgment  to  Him  as 
the  Son  of  man.  The  Father  judges  through  the  Son. 
The  conducting  of  the  judgment  belongs  to  Him  as  the 
executor  of  the  divine  plan  of  salvation.  We  thus  find 
emphasis  laid  in  the  apostolic  writings  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment upon  both  declarations,  i.e.,  that  God  judges  and 
that  Christ  judges.  Thus,  in  Rom.  14  :9~I2,  we  read: 
"For  to  this  end  Christ  died  and  lived  again,  that  he 
might  be  Lord  of  both  the  dead  and  the  living.  But  thou, 
why  dost  thou  judge  thy  brother?  or  thou  again,  why 
dost  thou  set  at  naught  thy  brother  ?  For  we  shall  all 
stand  before  the  judgment  seat  of  God.  For  it  is  writ- 
ten, As  I  live,  saith  the  Lord,  to  me  every  knee  shall 
bow,  and  every  tongue  shall  confess  to  God.  So  then 
each  one  of  us  shall  give  account  of  himself  to  God." 
According  to  the  testimony  of  many  important  manu- 
scripts, we  should  in  this  passage  read,  "the  judgment 
seat  of  Christ."  This  is  the  more  probable  as  in  the  pre- 
ceding verse  9  the  subject  was  the  universal  dominion  of 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED        129 

Christ  (compare  Phil.  2  :  lof),  and  in  verse  8  no  other 
than  Christ  can  be  meant  when  the  apostle  speaks  of  the 
Lord  to  whom  we  live,  to  whom  we  die,  and  whose  we 
are.  At  all  events,  Paul  wrote  to  the  Corinthians:  "We 
must  all  be  made  manifest  before  the  judgment-seat  of 
Christ,  that  each  one  may  receive  the  things  done  in  the 
body,  whether  it  be  good  or  bad."  It  is  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  Himself  who  on  the  "day  of  the  Lord"  at  His 
Parousia  shall  slay  the  man  of  sin,  the  son  of  perdition, 
the  adversary  of  Himself  and  of  God,  with  the  Spirit  (or, 
rather,  the  breath)  of  His  mouth  and  bring  him  to  naught 
by  the  manifestation  of  His  coming.  (2  Thes.  2:8.) 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  when  we  read  of  His  "revelation 
from  heaven"  (2  Thes.  I  :  7),  we  are  doubtless  to  under- 
stand that  God  will  reveal  Him  and  send  Him  forth  as 
Judge.  (Compare  Heb.  i  :6;  i  Peter  i  :  13;  5  14;  Luke 
17  :3°-)  Paul  gives  the  Corinthians  to  understand,  in 
view  of  their  unbecoming  and  untimely  criticising  and 
judging  of  their  teachers,  especially  of  himself,  that  it 
is  for  him  "a  very  small  thing"  that  he  should  be  judged 
of  them  or  of  man's  judgment:  "He  that  judgeth  me  is 
the  Lord.  Wherefore  judge  nothing  before  the  time, 
until  the  Lord  come  (i.e.,  Christ),  who  will  both  bring 
to  light  the  hidden  things  of  darkness,  and  make  manifest 
the  counsels  of  the  hearts."  It  is  to  Him,  Christ,  that 
Paul  and  his  fellow-laborers  are  accountable.  For  they 
are  servants  of  Christ  and  stewards  of  the  mysteries  of 
God,  and  it  is  from  God,  and  not  from  men,  that  due 
praise  will  come  to  every  faithful  servant  on  the  judg- 
ment day.  Again,  we  read  in  2  Tim.  4:1:  "I  charge 
thee  in  the  sight  of  God,  and  of  Christ  Jesus,  who  shall 
judge  the  living  and  the  dead,  and  by  his  appearing  and 
his  kingdom."  And  as  we  are  told,  in  Rom.  2:11,  that 
there  is  no  respect  of  persons  with  God,  so  masters  re- 


130   THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

ceive  the  admonition  to  do  that  which  is  just  and  proper 
to  their  servants,  forbearing  threatening,  since  they  know 
"that  he  who  is  both  their  Master  and  yours  is  in  heaven, 
and  there  is  no  respect  of  person  with  him"  (i.e.,  ac- 
cording to  the  context,  none  other  than  Christ).  The 
apostle  expresses  himself  still  more  definitely  in  Rom. 
2  :  16,  when  he,  in  view  of  the  accusing  or  excusing 
thoughts  of  the  hearts  of  men,  transports  himself  and 
his  readers  to  the  day  when  "God  shall  judge  the  secrets 
of  men,  according  to  my  gospel,  by  Jesus  Christ."  In 
perfect  accord  with  this,  Paul  declares  with  compact 
brevity  at  Athens:  "The  times  of  ignorance  therefore 
God  overlooked,  but  now  he  commandeth  men  that  they 
should  all  everywhere  repent:  inasmuch  as  he  hath  ap- 
pointed a  day  in  which  he  will  judge  the  world  in  right- 
eousness by  the  man  whom  he  hath  ordained;  whereof 
he  hath  given  assurance  unto  all  men,  in  that  he  hath 
raised  him  from  the  dead."  (Acts  17  :  3of. ;  compare 
also  Acts  10  : 42 ;  i  Peter  4:5.) 

Nor  do  we  find  anything  different  in  the  Revelation 
of  John.  The  Lord,  the  almighty  God,  who  was,  and  is, 
and  is  to  come,  before  whom  the  heavenly  hosts  cry, 
"Holy,  holy,  holy,"  is  discriminated  from  the  Lamb,  the 
Lion  of  the  tribe  of  Judah,  the  Branch  out  of  the  root 
of  David.  True,  He  who  is  represented  by  the  Lamb — 
Jesus  Christ,  the  faithful  Witness,  the  Firstborn  from 
the  dead,  the  Prince  among  the  kings  upon  the  earth — 
belongs  entirely  upon  an  equality  with  God  the  Creator 
of  the  world;  for  to  both,  to  Him  that  sitteth  upon  the 
throne  and  to  the  Lamb,  is  rendered  the  same  royal 
homage.  But  it  is  Christ  who  appears  to  sit  in  judg- 
ment. He  comes  seated  upon  a  white  cloud,  "like  unto  a 
Son  of  man,  having  on  his  head  a  golden  crown  and  in 
his  hand  a  sharp  sickle."  And  at  the  command  of  an 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED        131 

angel,  i.e.,  by  direction  of  God,  who  employs  an  angel 
for  the  execution  of  His  purpose,  He  casts  this  sickle 
upon  the  earth,  "and  the  earth  was  reaped."  (Rev.  14  : 
14,  16.)  But  one  side  of  the  judgment  is  here  depicted, 
the  gathering  of  the  pious,  like  ripened  wheat,  into  the 
kingdom.  The  judgment  of  the  wicked  is  afterward  de- 
scribed under  the  figure  of  the  gathering  and  treading 
out  of  grapes,  and  here  Christ  does  not  appear  as  partici- 
pating, but  only  angels  (14  :  16-20).  Nevertheless,  we 
find  it  afterward  declared  without  any  ambiguity  that  He, 
i.e.,  the  King  of  all  kings  and  Lord  of  all  lords,  who 
comes  "riding  upon  the  white  horse,  who  is  called  Faith- 
ful and  True,"  who  "doth  judge  and  make  war  with 
righteousness,"  whose  "name  is  called  The  Word  of 
God,"  "treadeth  the  winepress  of  the  fierceness  of  the 
wrath  of  God,  the  Almighty."  The  description  in  14  : 
i6ff.  is  laconic.  We  are  left  to  understand,  without 
special  explanation,  that  the  angel  coming  out  from  the 
temple  and  gathering  the  clusters  of  the  vine  of  the  earth 
performs  his  task  by  the  command  of  Christ. 

III.  "To  judge  the  quick  and  the  dead" — not  only 
those  who  are  living  when  the  Lord  shall  appear,  but 
also  those  who  are  dead — not  only  single  individuals 
among  the  dead  and  the  living,  but  all  in  either  state. 
The  judgment  will  embrace  the  whole  human  race.  If 
the  eternal  God  breathed  His  creative  Spirit  into  the 
whole  universe,  and  especially  into  man  created  in  His 
own  image,  and  did  not  entirely  withdraw  it  even  after 
the  fall,  and  if  He  planned  redemption  as  a  general  re- 
newal, embracing  the  whole  earth,  a  new  Creation  which 
should  bring  heaven  and  earth  into  harmony  with  one 
another,  and  in  which  a  divine  race  of  men  should  live 
and  move  to  His  honor  in  'perfect  holiness — then  the 
separation  and  sifting  resulting  in  and  through  the  Judg- 


132       THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

ment  must  necessarily  be  also  universal  in  scope.  How 
inimitable  are  the  delineations  of  the  judgment  of  the 
world  by  the  Lord  of  hosts  given  already  in  the  Old  Tes- 
tament, as,  for  example,  in  Isa.  2  :  nfF. :  "Jenovan  alone 
shall  be  exalted  in  that  day.  For  there  shall  be  a  day  of 
Jehovah  of  hosts  upon  all  that  is  proud  and  haughty, 
and  upon  all  that  is  lifted  up ;  and  it  shall  be  brought  low ; 
and  upon  all  the  cedars  of  Lebanon,  that  are  high  and 
lifted  up,  and  upon  all  the  oaks  of  Bashan,  and  upon 
all  the  high  mountains,  and  upon  all  the  hills  that  are 
lifted  up,  and  upon  every  lofty  tower,  and  upon  every 
fortified  wall,  and  upon  all  the  ships  of  Tarshish,  and 
upon  all  pleasant  imagery.  And  the  loftiness  of  man 
shall  be  bowed  down,  and  the  haughtiness  of  men  shall 
be  brought  low;  and  Jehovah  alone  shall  be  exalted  in 
that  day.  And  the  idols  shall  utterly  pass  away.  .  .  . 
Cease  ye  from  man,  whose  breath  is  in  his  nostrils;  for 
wherein  is  he  to  be  accounted  of?"  By  the  side  of  this 
we  place  the  vision  of  Rev.  6  :  I2ff. :  "And  I  saw  when 
he  (the  Lamb)  opened  the  sixth  seal,  and  there  was  a 
great  earthquake;  and  the  sun  became  black  as  sack- 
cloth of  hair,  and  the  whole  moon  became  as  blood.  .  .  . 
And  the  kings  of  the  earth,  and  the  princes,  and  the  chief 
captains,  and  the  rich,  and  the  strong,  and  every  bond- 
man and  freeman  hid  themselves  in  the  caves  and  in  the 
rocks  of  the  mountains;  and  they  say  to  the  mountains 
and  to  the  rocks,  Fall  on  us  and  hide  us  from  the  face  of 
him  that  sitteth  on  the  throne,  and  from  the  wrath  of 
the  Lamb :  for  the  great  day  of  their  wrath  is  come ;  and 
who  is  able  to  stand?"  He  whose  eyes  are  as  a  flame 
of  fire  will  find  and  bring  to  light  all  men  and  all 
things.  .  .  . 

We   note   again   with   admiration   the   comprehensive 
brevity  and  conciseness  of  our  Creed  in  the  expression, 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED   133 

"The  quick  and  the  dead."*  There  is  not  even  a  refer- 
ence here  to  the  fact  that  a  judgment  of  both  the  living 
and  the  dead  cannot  take  place  until  the  latter  shall  have 
been  recalled  to  a  state  of  bodily  life.  In  other  words, 
the  resurrection  of  the  dead  must  precede  the  Judgment. 
And  a  reward  of  the  deeds  done  in  the  body  can,  ac- 
cording to  the  Christian  faith,  be  given  only  to  a  man 
who  is  alive  in  the  body.  In  view  of  this,  we  can  ap- 
preciate the  well-known  saying  of  Paul,  "If  the  dead 
are  not  raised,  let  us  eat  and  drink,  for  to-morrow  we 
die."  From  this  it  follows  also  that  the  Creed  speaks 
only  of  a  judgment  affecting  men.  That  the  angels  are  also 
to  be  summoned  to  judgment  is  never  stated  in  the 
Scriptures.  We  read,  indeed,  in  one  passage  of  Paul, 
"Know  ye  not  that  we  shall  judge  angels?"  (i  Cor.  6:3.) 
But  the  word  "judge"  is  here,  no  doubt,  used  in  the 
wider  sense — exercise  authority,  rule — as  in  the  pre- 
ceding verse,  ''Know  ye  not  that  the  saints  shall  judge  the 
world?",  or  as  in  the  words  of  Jesus  to  the  apostles, 
"When  the  Son  of  man  shall  sit  upon  the  throne  of  his 
glory,  ye  also  shall  sit  upon  twelve  thrones,  judging  the 
twelve  tribes  of  Israel"  (Matt.  19  :28),  with  which  may  be 
compared  Dan.  7  :  22 :  "Until  the  ancient  of  days  came, 
and  judgment  was  given  to  the  saints  of  the  Most  High, 
and  the  time  came  when  the  saints  possessed  the  king- 
dom." 

The  Creed  does  not  even  indicate  the  nature  of  the 
test  to  be  applied ;  it  is  silent  as  to  the  verdict  to  be  ex- 
pected and  its  execution,  and  various  other  phases  of 
the  Judgment.  As  it  always  confines  itself  to  the  state- 
ment of  facts,  so  here  the  stupendous  fact  of  the  Judg- 

*  Acts  10  : 42 ;  Rom.  14  : 9 ;  2  Tim.  4:1;!  Peter  4  :  5.  Com- 
pare also  Rev.  II  :  18;  14  : 13;  20  :  S,  12. 


134   THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

ment  is  placed  in  the  foreground,  like  a  mighty  tower- 
ing rock  of  granite,  the  image  of  which  shall  be  imprinted 
upon  the  hearts  and  consciences  of  those  who  thus  con- 
fess their  faith.  It  must  be  left  to  the  believer,  who  at 
his  baptism  was  required  to  repeat  the  Apostles'  Creed, 
or  a  similar  one  (and  in  no  case  was  the  mention  of  the 
Judgment  lacking),  as  the  confession  of  his  own  faith, 
to  infer  that  the  Judge,  whose  absolutely  necessary  medi- 
ation he  acknowledged  in  the  Creed  at  his  entrance  into 
the  church,  would  regulate  the  final  Judgment  by  the 
same  test  which  He  applied  to  the  hearts  of  men  in  His 
preaching  when  upon  earth,  i.e.,  whether  there  were 
good  fruits  which  could  receive  the  approbation  of  the 
Lord  or  whether  the  life-tree  of  the  individual  had  borne 
poor  and  evil  fruits.  Evil  thoughts  and  purposes  ( I  Cor. 
4:5)  shall  be  brought  to  light;  account  must  be  rendered 
for  every  idle  word  spoken,  and  every  evil  word  shall  be 
cast  into  the  furnace  of  the  divine  holiness  and  burned ; 
or,  rather,  the  man  whose  life  has  produced  such  evil 
fruits,  because  he  must  be  in  his  innermost  heart  and 
nature  an  evil  man,  shall  be  given  over  to  destruction. 
On  the  other  hand,  he  who  out  of  the  good  treasure 
of  his  heart  has  brought  forth  good  thoughts  and  praise- 
worthy words  and  deeds  will  receive  the  inheritance  of 
eternal  life.  He  has  been,  or  rather  he  has  become,  like 
a  good  tree,  and  the  transformation  of  his  character 
can  be  explained  only  by  the  fact  that  the  same  Lord 
who  has  now  become  the  Judge  had  previously  by  His 
powerful  renewing  grace  transplanted  him  from  the 
barren  shore  of  the  Dead  Sea  into  the  fruitful  fields 
of  Eden  and  Sharon.  Thus,  in  the  last  analysis,  every- 
thing depends  upon  the  relation  to  Him,  the  Mediator  of 
salvation.  Faith  in  Him  saves,  both  now  and  hereafter. 
No  doubt  the  Philippian  jailer,  when  he  cried,  "Sirs,  what 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED        135 

must  I  do  to  be  saved  ?",  was  thinking  of  the  future  Judg- 
ment with  its  terrors  and  its  unrelenting,  fearful  punish- 
ment. In  the  earthquake  and  in  the  miraculous  escape 
of  his  prisoners  from  the  stocks  and  chains,  he,  doubtless 
partially  instructed  in  Christian  truth  by  the  missionary 
preaching  of  Paul,  certainly  like  the  centurion  at  the 
cross,  saw  lightning  flashes  of  the  Last  Judgment.  And 
when  Paul  replies,  "Believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus  and  thou 
shalt  be  saved,  thou  and  thy  house,"  he,  too,  had  the 
Judgment  of  the  Last  Day  in  view.  He  who  here  on 
earth  lays  hold  upon  salvation  will  escape  that  Judgment, 
i.e.,  will  escape  from  the  condemnation  then  to  be  pro- 
nounced. Jesus  can  therefore  say,  as  John  reports 
(3  :  17),  that  "God  sent  not  his  Son  into  the  world  to 
judge  the  world;  but  that  the  world  should  be  saved 
through  him,"  and  that  "He  that  believeth  on  him  is 
not  judged:  he  that  believeth  not  hath  been  judged 
already,  because  he  hath  not  believed  on  the  name  of  the 
only  begotten  Son  of  God."  With  this  we  should  asso- 
ciate the  words  (5  : 24) :  "Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you, 
He  that  heareth  my  word  and  beiieveth  him  that  sent 
me,  hath  eternal  life,  and  cometh  not  into  judgment,  but 
hath  passed  out  of  death  into  life." 

Even  believers,  it  is  true,  whose  spiritual  state  is 
pleasing  to  God  and  whose  works  will  be  found  to  stand 
the  test,  will  not  in  every  particular  avoid  the  Judgment. 
The  lord  who  had  taken  a  journey  comes  again  and  makes 
a  reckoning  with  his  servants — not  only  with  the  evil 
servant,  but  also  with  those  who  are  found  faithful.  "He 
that  judgeth  me  is  the  Lord,"  writes  Paul  to  the  Corinth- 
ians, i.e.,  on  the  day  when  He  comes,  in  contrast  to  a 
"day  of  man"  when  the  Corinthians  should  place  the 
character  and  work  of  their  preachers  in  the  scales  of 
their  criticism,  He  will  judge  His  servants  from  no  other 


136   THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

point  of  view  than  that  of  their  fidelity  as  stewards.  In 
a  sublime  portraiture,  the  seer  of  Revelation  describes  the 
Last  Judgment  (20  :  I2ff.)  :  "I  saw  the  dead,  the  great 
and  the  small,  standing  before  the  throne ;  and  books  were 
opened :  and  another  book  was  opened,  which  is  the  book 
of  life :  and  the  dead  were  judged  out  of  the  things 
which  were  written  in  the  books,  according  to  their 
works.  .  .  .  And  if  any  was  not  found  written  in  the 
book  of  life,  he  was  cast  into  the  lake  of  fire." 

It  was  also  required  that  in  the  oral  instruction  of  can- 
didates for  reception  to  the  early  Church  there  should 
be  a  more  precise  description  of  the  method  of  the  Judg- 
ment and  the  rewards  and  penalties  to  follow.  Here 
young  believers  must  have  heard,  what  was  the  universal 
view  of  the  teachings  of  Scripture,  that,  while  there  was 
for  all  the  same  fundamental  reward  of  saving  grace, 
there  should  yet  be  various  degrees  in  the  verdict — that 
many  would  by  a  very  narrow  margin,  "so  as  by  fire," 
have  a  part  in  salvation  and  blessedness,  and  that  the 
punishment  of  the  condemned  should  be  with  few  or 
many  stripes.  It  may  be  further  noted  that  the  Church, 
in  perfect  harmony  with  utterances  of  both  the  Old  and 
the  New  Testaments,  painted  the  Judgment  scene  in  right 
bold  colors  and  did  not  hesitate  to  arouse  and  terrify  dull 
and  sleeping  consciences  by  presenting  the  inexorable 
severity  and  rigor  of  the  alternative :  Either  saved  or  lost ; 
eternally  blessed  or  eternally  miserable ;  joy  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  Lord  and  with  Him,  or  unspeakable  woe  in 
the  companionship  of  the  devil  and  his  angels. 

It  is  only  necessary  to  glance  at  the  oldest  literary 
remains  preserved  in  the  Church  outside  of  the  New 
Testament  canon,  in  order  to  find  abundant  confirmation 
of  this.  Hermas — at  the  close  of  the  first  century — sees 
the  Lord  of  the  tower,  seen  by  him  in  a  vision,  approach 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED        137 

the  tower  and  touch  every  stone  with  a  staff,  to  see 
whether  it  can  stand  the  test.*  Every  stone  represents 
a  Christian,  but  not  all  are  by  any  means  such  as  will 
endure  the  test  of  the  Judgment.  "Behold  the  future 
Judgment,"  he  cries  to  the  luxurious  and  hardhearted  rich 
man.  Those  who  in  the  end  fall  away  from  the  living 
God  and  do  not  afterward  manifest  true  repentance  are 
like  those  who  fall  into  the  eternal  fire  and  are  burned. 
When  the  magistrate  threatened  Polycarp — about  sixty 
years  later  than  Hermas — that  if  he  did  not  fear  the 
wild  beasts,  he  would  end  his  life  with  fire,  the  brave 
and  pious  old  man  replied :  "Thou  threatenest  me  with  a 
fire  that  burns  only  for  a  time  and  is  soon  put  out  again. 
For  thou  knowest  nothing  of  the  fire  of  the  future  judg- 
ment and  eternal  punishment  which  is  reserved  for  un- 
godly men."  The  oldest  "Apologist"  whose  writings  have 
been  preserved  to  us,  Aristides,  the  philosopher — about 
A.D.  138 — warns  the  Emperor  Hadrian,  or  rather  M. 
Antonius  Pius,  at  the  close  of  his  Apology :  "May  all  who 
have  not  known  God  anticipate  the  terrible  judgment 
which  will  come  upon  the  whole  human  race  through 
Jesus  Christ."  And  Justin,  in  his  first  Apology,  not  much 
later,  writes :  "If  you,  despite  the  fact  that  we  pray  for 
you  and  openly  proclaim  everything,  do  not  concern 
yourselves  in  the  least  about  the  matter,  that  will  not  in- 
jure us  at  all,  since  we  believe,  or  rather,  are  fully  con- 
vinced, that  everyone,  according  as  his  deeds  have  been, 
shall  make  atonement  through  the  eternal  fire  and  render 
'an  account  according  to  the  measure  of  the  talents  re- 
ceived from  God."  Justin  also,  in  his  second  Apology, 
relates  in  a  striking  way  that  a  noble  woman  of  high  rank, 
converted  from  a  licentious  life  to  Christianity  and  a 


*  Parable    IX  :  6.  1-3. 


138   THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

pious  life,  remonstrated  earnestly  with  her  heathen  and 
dissolute  husband,  assuring  him  that  a  punishment  in 
eternal  fire  awaits  those  who  against  reason  and  right- 
eousness lead  a  wicked  life. 

Oh !  how  harsh  such  language  sounds  to  our  tender 
sensibility  and  taste — so  much  so  that  nothing  is  longer 
to  be  said  in  our  pulpits  or  taught  in  our  schools  about  the 
future  Judgment.  For  it  has  already  come  to  this,  that 
not  only  is  Jesus  ruled  out  of  the  doctrine  of  the  future 
judgment  (which  is  said  to  belong  to  the  province  of 
God,  not  of  Jesus),  but  God  Himself  and  His  Judgment 
are  banished  from  the  faith  of  the  people  and  reduced 
to  a  figment  of  the  imagination.  Beware  how  far  you 
go  with  this  breaking  down  of  the  thought  of  a  coming 
Judgment!  Or,  do  you  imagine  that  it  will  be  sufficient 
to  say  that  the  moral  order  of  the  world  requires  a  chaste 
and  honorable  life,  integrity,  truthfulness  toward  all 
and  every  virtue?  I  believe  that  wherever  the  idea  of  a 
real  final  judgment  is  cast  aside  or  even  blunted,  the 
strongest  support  of  chastity  and  honor  and  veracity  is 
removed.  Paul  did  not  address  to  a  Felix  a  Stoical 
tirade  upon  the  order  of  nature  and  the  world,  nor  a 
lecture  upon  our  duties  toward  our  fellow-men  and  our 
own  bodies;  but  he  set  before  his  eyes  the  requirements 
of  a  holy  and  righteous  God,  and  preached  to  him  of  the 
future  Judgment.  And  this  preaching  gripped  his  heart 
and  conscience. 

But  how  is  this?  Where  then  is  Jesus  Christ,  the 
Saviour  of  the  world,  the  Helper  of  the  needy,  the 
Friend  of  human  souls?  Oh,  He  still  remains,  and  al- 
ways upon  the  field  prosecuting  His  mission,  even  when 
conducting  the  judgment  on  the  Last  Day!  He  will 
not  reject  the  upright  soul,  nor  repulse  those  who  fer- 
vently long  for  salvation.  He  will  have  compassion  upon 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED   139 

all  the  weak.  God  has  given  over  the  Judgment  to  Him, 
because  He  is  the  Son  of  man;  and  just  because  He  is 
such — because  He  has  become  partaker  of  our  flesh  and 
blood — He  can  and  will  have  pity  upon  our  frailties. 
To  the  upright  and  pious  of  every  class  the  announce- 
ment, "From  thence  He  shall  come  to  judge  the  quick 
and  the  dead,"  has  not  only  a  startling  effect,  but  they 
are  thereby  reminded  of  the  words  of  the  psalm,  "Re- 
joice with  trembling!"  and  admonished  to  seek  the  Lord 
of  grace  while  yet  there  is  time.  According  to  the  ancient 
legend,  this  clause  was  offered  by  the  apostle  Matthew 
as  his  contribution  to  the  construction  of  the  Creed. 
Matthew  had  been  a  publican  and  sinner,  but  he  had 
heard  from  the  lips  of  Jesus :  "I  am  not  come  to  call  the 
righteous,  but  sinners  to  repentance."  Without  this  com- 
fort, the  thought  of  the  Judgment  Day  would  be  utterly 
unendurable.  But  now  that  it  is  inseparably  connected 
with  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ  the  Mediator,  we  can 
sing  as  in  one  breath  : 

"Day  of  judgment — day  of  wonders, 
Hark,  the  trumpet's  awful  sound!" 

and 

"See  the  Judge  our  nature  wearing, 

Clothed  in  majesty  divine! 
Ye  who  long  for  His  appearing 
Then  shall  say,  'This  God  is  mine !' "  * 


*  These  lines  are  represented  in  the  original  by  stanzas  of  the 
German  hymns,  "Er  kommt  zum  Weltgerichte,"  and  "Wie  soil 
ich  dich  empfangen." 


CHAPTER  X 
I  Believe  in  the  Holy  Ghost 

BY  DR.  P.  BACH  MANN 

PROFESSOR  OF  SYSTEMATIC  THEOLOGY  AND  NEW  TESTAMENT  EXEGESIS 
AT   ERLANGEN 

I.  How  did  the  confession  of  faith  in  the  Holy  Spirit 
come  to  have  a  place  in  the  primitive  Creed  of  the  Church 
of  Christ?  In  this,  as  in  other  particulars,  the  Creed  is 
a  faithful  expression  of  the  truth  preached  by  the  apos- 
tles, a  necessary  echo  of  it  from  the  heart  of  the  youthful 
Church  in  its  formative  period.  Peter  in  his  sermon  at 
Pentecost  had  at  once  proclaimed  the  arrival  of  the  age 
of  the  Spirit,  whom  God  was  to  pour  out  upon  all  flesh; 
acknowledged  the  exalted  Christ  as  the  possessor  and  dis- 
penser of  the  Holy  Spirit;  pronounced  the  miraculous 
operation  of  the  Holy  Spirit  upon  the  company  of  be- 
lievers a  result  of  the  exaltation  of  Jesus,  and  promised 
the  gift  of  the  Spirit  to  all  who  receive  baptism  in  the 
name  of  Jesus  Christ.  In  the  miraculous  powers  which 
descended  from  above  upon  him  and  his  associates,  the 
apostle,  therefore,  recognized  a  pledge  and  fruit  of  the 
supremacy  of  his  Lord  in  heaven.  His  assured  faith  in 
Christ  was.  confirmed  and  completed  by  his  experience 
of  the  Spirit.  With  the  preaching  of  Christ  there  was 
thus  from  the  very  beginning  combined  a  directing  of 
the  thoughts  of  the  hearers  to  the  Holy  Spirit  and  the 
promise  of  the  Spirit.  We  may  think  of  Peter,  the  other 
apostles  and  Paul,  the  primitive  missionaries,  as  heralds 

140 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED        141 

passing  through  the  land  and  the  surrounding  nations 
with  the  clear  conception  of  their  mission  :  "We  preach  to 
you  Christ  and  His  supremacy ;  we  bring  to  you  the  Holy 
Spirit."  With  the  full  consciousness  of  this  mission, 
Paul  taught  the  Christians  in  Galatia  to  regard  the  new 
experience  in  their  own  hearts,  the  new  powers  with 
which  they  were  endowed,  and  their  awakening  conscious- 
ness of  divine  sonship  as  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
who  had  been  imparted  to  them.  (Gal.  3  :  2ff. ;  4:6.) 
He  exhorted  them  no  less  to  allow  this  Spirit  to  become 
a  source  of  a  new  and  holy  life  in  inward  liberty,  in  love, 
in  victory  over  the  lusts  of  the  flesh,  and  the  impelling 
power  enabling  them  to  sow  the  seed  for  a  glorious 
harvest  in  eternity  (5  :  5  to  6  :  10).  He  sought  to  inspire 
the  brethren  at  Corinth  with  the  conviction  that  the  Spirit 
of  God  dwelt  in  them  if  and  because  they  remain  fixed 
upon  the  one  foundation  that  is  laid,  Jesus  Christ.  ( I  Cor. 
3  :  16;  6  :  19.)  When  they  were  inclined  to  pride  them- 
selves upon  the  abundance  of  their  peculiar  and  extraor- 
dinary gifts  and  even  vied  with  one  another  in  the  use 
of  them,  he  taught  them  that  the  Spirit  works  even  in 
the  simplest  confession  of  faith  in  Christ,  and  that  the 
best,  most  fruitful  and  most  glorious  proof  of  the  pos- 
session of  the  Spirit  is  the  love  that  beareth  all  things, 
believeth  all  things,  hopeth  all  things,  endureth  all  things 
(12  13;  13  riff.).  He  sought  to  make  it  clear  to  them 
that  the  glory  of  Christ  lies  precisely  in  this,  that  He 
brings  the  Spirit,  the  life-giving,  liberating  Spirit,  and 
not  a  dead  law  with  its  fixed  literal  requirements.  (2  Cor. 
3  :4-i8.)  This  congregation  and  all  the  churches  into 
whose  hearts  and  ears  he  had  been  permitted  to  pour  the 
Gospel  lay  before  his  vision  as  an  epistle  which  Christ 
had  written  upon  the  hearts  of  men  by  the  Spirit  (3  :  3). 
In  his  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  Paul  describes  the  fellow- 


142   THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

ship  of  believers  with  God  as  resulting  from  a  genuine 
acceptance  of  Jesus  Christ.  But  he  also  represents  it  as 
due  to  the  fact  that  God  makes  Jesus  Christ  the  Mediator 
of  the  Spirit,  and  through  this  Spirit  begets  a  life  of 
genuine  godly  disposition,  joyous  confidence  in  God  and 
victorious  conquest  of  sin.  (Rom.  8  :  1-17.)  Because  ye 
have  heard  in  faith  the  word  of  truth  from  Christ,  ye 
have  been  sealed  with  the  promised  Holy  Spirit.  It  is 
one  Spirit  who  among  you  and  everywhere  builds  to- 
gether Jews  and  Gentiles  into  a  temple  of  God  in  Christ. 
Ye  are  in  this  Spirit  under  obligation  to  preserve  unity 
amid  all  the  diversity  of  gifts  and  powers,  and  by  the 
power  of  this  Spirit  to  mold  your  lives  anew  in  clear 
contrast  with  the  sins  of  the  past — with  these  great  truths 
and  lofty  and  earnest  exhortations  Paul  illuminates  and 
explains  to  the  Ephesians  their  standing  in  Christ,  their 
duty  to  learn  from  Him,  and  their  life  in  Him.  (Eph. 
i  :  I3f. ;  2  :  11-22;  4  :  3ff. ;  22f.,  30.)  Paul  feels  him- 
self and  his  spiritual  son,  Timothy,  supported  in  the  work 
of  preserving  the  sound  doctrine  by  the  one  Holy  Spirit 
dwelling  in  them,  the  Spirit  of  power  and  love  and  disci- 
pline." (2  Tim.  i  :  14,  7.)  Like  Paul,  Peter  bears  clear 
testimony  to  the  Spirit  in  his  epistles.  He  teaches  the 
Christians  of  Asia  that  the  Spirit  of  God  has  laid  hold 
upon  them  with  His  sanctifying  power,  because  they  have 
subjected  themselves  to  Christ  and  received  the  sprink- 
ling through  His  blood,  (i  Peter  1:2.)  He  desires  to 
see  the  Christian  Church  a  Spirit-filled  house,  and  he 
represents  the  ascended  Lord,  in  whom  they  believe, 
though  they  see  Him  not,  and  whom  unseen  they  love, 
as  Himself  living  in  the  Spirit  (2  15;  3  :  18).  In  the 
midst  of  the  reproach  which  they  bear  for  Christ's  sake, 
they  are  to  be  sustained  by  the  lofty  consciousness  that 
even  now,  and  just  on  account  of  their  afflictions,  the 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED   143 

Spirit  of  God's  glory  descends  upon  them  (4  :  14).  John, 
too,  teaches  his  readers  to  find  in  their  possession  of  the 
Spirit  a  pledge  that  their  fellowship  with  God  and  their 
participation  in  the  salvation  wrought  through  the  Son 
are  inviolable  living  realities,  (i  John  3  124;  4  :  13.) 
Being  anointed  with  this  Spirit  qualifies  for  the  discrim- 
inating between  Christian  truth  and  Christ-denying  false- 
hoods (2  :  igfi.,  27).  Even  the  Holy  Spirit  Himself  is 
proved  to  be  genuine  by  the  testimony  which  He  bears 
to  Christ  manifest  in  the  flesh  (4  :2f.). 

Thus  in  all  the  preaching  of  the  apostles  the  heralding 
of  Christ  and  of  the  Spirit  go  hand  in  hand — not  only  side 
by  side,  but  most  intimately  bound  together.  Both  are  pre- 
sented together,  interlaced  and  inseparably  combined. 
The  belief  of  the  apostolic  Church  in  Christ  was  always 
at  the  same  time  a  belief  in  the  Holy  Spirit. 

This  may  be  thought  remarkable,  and,  perhaps,  even 
unintelligible.  For  if  Christ  and  the  Spirit  are  nothing 
more  than  organs  of  the  living  God,  mediators  of  His 
dominion  over  men  and  His  self-impartation  to  men, 
what,  it  may  be  asked,  is  then  the  purpose  of  this  two- 
fold, double  mediatorship  ?  Certainly  the  existence  of  a 
mediatorship  does  not  of  itself  in  this  sphere  indicate  a 
limitation  of  the  immediate  exercise  of  the  power  of 
God.  This  is  perfectly  clear  even  in  the  Old  Testament. 
The  Old  Testament  moves  entirely  and  joyously  in  the 
full  consciousness  of  the  immediate  sovereignty  of  God. 
All  the  organs  of  which  God  there  avails  Himself  are  ex- 
pressions of  this  immediacy  and  not  limitations  of  it. 
The  more  imperiously  the  supreme  sovereignty  of  God 
is  displayed,  the  more  fully  and  overmasteringly  does  it 
impart  itself  to  the  mediating  agents  selected  and  em- 
ployed by  it.  It  is  not,  therefore,  the  existence  of  a 
mediatorship  which  in  itself  makes  the  teaching  of  Scrip- 


144   THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

tures  so  remarkable  and  apparently  unintelligible. 

But  does  it  not  almost  seem  as  though  there  were, 
even  in  the  Old  Testament,  a  certain  concurrence  between 
the  two  organs  of  divine  mediation  recognized  in  the 
teachings  of  the  primitive  Church  and  its  leaders?  The 
Old  Testament  certainly  looks  forward  to  the  future 
for  the  full  display  of  the  divine  sovereignty.  It  utters 
this  expectation  in  sublime  prophecies  and  promises.  But 
have  we  not  some  prophecies  in  which  the  salvation  of 
God  in  the  future  is  made  to  flow  entirely  from  the  Mes- 
siah, and  others  in  which  it  is  presented  as  a  fruit  of  the 
outpouring  of  the  Holy  Spirit  ?  The  hopes  of  the  future, 
for  example,  in  Isa.  9  :  6,  are  fixed  entirely  upon  the  com- 
ing Messiah :  "For  unto  us  a  child  is  born,  unto  us  a 
son  is  given;  and  the  government  shall  be  upon  his 
shoulder :  and  His  name  shall  be  called  Wonderful,  Coun- 
sellor, Mighty  God,  Everlasting  Father,  Prince  of  Peace." 
On  the  other  hand,  the  eyes  are  directed  to  the  Spirit 
alone  in  the  passage  in  Ezekiel  (36  :26f.)  which  cul- 
minates in  the  promise :  "A  new  heart  also  will  I  give 
you,  and  a  new  spirit  will  I  put  within  you;  and  I  will 
take  away  the  stony  heart  out  of  your  flesh,  and  I  will 
give  you  a  heart  of  flesh.  And  I  will  put  my  Spirit 
within  you,  and  cause  you  to  walk  in  my  statutes,  and  ye 
shall  keep  mine  ordinances  and  do  them."  Does  not  the 
one  class  of  promises  cross  the  path  of,  the  other,  just 
as,  in  the  faith  of  the  Ne\v  Testament  Church,  the  confi- 
dence in  Christ  alone  and  the  assurance  of  the  possession 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  appear  to  encroach  upon  one  another? 

Let  us  first  inquire  how  it  came  to  pass  that  the  con- 
fession of  faith  in  the  Spirit  stands  side  by  side  with  that 
of  faith  in  Christ.  Is  it  a  result  of  any  theoretical  ideas, 
or  in  obedience  to  a  doctrinal  tradition  ?  No ;  it  was  the 
utterance  of  immediate  conviction  of  real  facts;  a  heart- 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED        145 

felt  and  enthusiastic  belief.  These  early  believers  were 
joyfully  conscious  of  the  possession  of  the  Spirit.  They 
directly  experienced  His  presence  with  creative  activity 
in  the  extraordinary  wealth  of  miraculous  gifts  and  pow- 
ers outpoured  upon  the  churches  and  upon  many  indi- 
viduals simultaneously.  Miracles  were  performed, 
prophecies  were  uttered,  secret  things  were  revealed, 
timid  lips  were  opened  as  by  a  compulsion  from  above, 
mighty  forces  of  inward  renewal  transformed  the  souls 
of  men,  an  inner  sense  of  liberty  and  happiness  irradiated 
the  lives  of  multitudes.  This  is  the  Spirit  whom  Christ 
has  given  us !  With  this  joyously-proclaimed  conviction, 
they  made  the  glorious  facts  their  own.  Thus  the  public 
confession  of  the  Spirit  sprang  spontaneously  from  their 
lips  because  they  recognized  Him  as  a  reality  in  the  life  of 
the  congregation  and  in  the  movements  and  life  within 
their  own  souls.  But  this  reality  was  thus  glorious,  not  only 
in  itself,  but  through  its  association  with  the  promises  of 
Jesus,  whom  they  honored  and  worshiped  as  Lord  over 
all,  in  whom  they  recognized  with  joy  and  comfort  the 
Eternal  Father  Himself  and  His  saving  love. 

Promises  of  the  Spirit  given  by  Jesus?  Modern  crit- 
ical theology  enters  a  protest.  Nevertheless,  we  shall 
study  them,  starting  with  the  fact  that  our  Lord,  after 
His  resurrection,  authorized  and  instructed  His  disciples 
to  evangelize  the  whole  world  with  His  teachings,  and 
that  He,  in  connection  with  this,  appointed  baptism  to  be 
administered  in  the  name  of  the  Father  and  of  the  Son 
and  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  The  question  may  indeed  be 
asked,  when  considering  this  solemn,  profound  and  im- 
pressive formula,  whether  the  reference  here  to  the 
Holy  Spirit  is  not  a  surprise  in  view  of  the  usual  teach- 
ings of  Jesus.  In  these,  we  know  with  certainty  that  He 
announced  that  the  kingdom  of  God  had  come  and  de- 
10 


146        THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

clared  Himself  the  Messiah  in  this  kingdom.  These  two 
thoughts  so  dominate  and  fill  the  teaching  of  Jesus  that 
at  the  first  glance  and  in  a  superficial  analysis  we  may 
fail  to  note  any  marked  interest  in  the  presence  or 
agency  of  the  Spirit.  But  how  far  astray  would  be  such 
a  conclusion !  In  the  conversation  with  Nicodemus,  Jesus 
made  entrance  to  the  kingdom  of  God  dependent  upon 
the  new  birth  by  the  Spirit,  and  already  with  open,  listen- 
ing ear  caught  something  of  the  sound  of  the  mysterious 
wind  of  the  regenerating  Spirit.  In  His  last  discourses 
with  His  disciples,  He  foretold  the  coming  of  the  Spirit 
of  truth  and  announced  Him  as  the  mediating  agent 
through  whom  they  would  receive  inward  clearness  of 
vision  and  power,  and  through  whom  the  Church  would 
be  enabled  to  maintain  itself  and  make  progress  in  the 
world.  (John  14  .-26;  15  126;  16  :7ff.)  These  express 
declarations  are  found,  it  is  true,  only  in  the  Gospel  of 
John.  But  they  are  firmly  anchored  also  in  the  dis- 
courses of  Jesus  recorded  in  the  other  Gospels.  They 
speak,  indeed,  very  seldom  of  the  Spirit;  but  when  they 
do  so,  it  is  always  in  the  most  reverent  and  significant 
way.  When  Jesus  drives  out  devils,  He  is  enabled  to  do 
so  by  the  power  of  the  Spirit  of  God  which  works  effect- 
ually in  Him.  If  the  power  of  the  Spirit  of  God  is  thus 
active  in  His  works,  this  is  claimed  as  a  pledge  and  de- 
cisive evidence  that  the  kingdom  of  God  has  begun  on 
earth.  (Matt.  12  :28.)  Blasphemy  against  the  Holy 
Ghost  is,  therefore,  denounced  as  the  unpardonable  sin. 
(Matt.  12  :  31 ;  Mark  3  :  28f.)  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  peculiar  and  supreme  blessing  which  the  Father  in 
heaven  is  ready  to  bestow  upon  those  who  ask  in  prayer 
is  this  same  Holy  Spirit.  (Compare  Luke  n  :  13  with 
Matt.  7:11.)  In  the  gift  of  the  Spirit  also,  according 
to  these  witnesses,  is  manifested  the  sovereign  power  of 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED   147 

God  in  its  peculiar  energy,  in  its  blessing  and  saving  effi- 
cacy, in  its  strict  judicial  severity,  and  its  unapproachable 
holiness.  If  Jesus  thus  thought  and  spoke,  His  concep- 
tion of  His  own  inner  life  must  have  been  that  it  was 
His  calling  to  impart  to  the  people  of  God  just  this  dis- 
tinctive gift  of  the  Spirit  by  offering  Himself  to  them  as 
their  Lord  and  Master,  and,  therefore,  that  He  was  Him- 
self in  His  own  inner  being  and  personal  life  filled  with 
the  Spirit  of  God,  and  just  in  consequence  of  this  capable 
of  accomplishing  His  Messianic  work.  And  we  have  evi- 
dence that  He  did  thus  regard  Himself.  Luke  reports 
that  Jesus  in  the  synagogue  at  Capernaum  applied  to 
Himself  the  words  of  Isaiah's  prophecy :  "The  Spirit  of 
the  Lord  Jehovah  is  upon  me;  because  Jehovah  hath 
anointed  me  to  preach  good  tidings  unto  the  meek;  he 
hath  sent  me  to  bind  up  the  broken-hearted,  to  proclaim 
liberty  to  the  captives,  and  the  opening  of  the  prison  to 
them  that  are  bound;  to  proclaim  the  year  of  Jehovah's 
favor."  He,  therefore,  always  regarded  Himself  as  the 
possessor,  bearer  and  imparter  of  the  Spirit,  and  drew 
the  energy  for  all  His  activities  from  the  Spirit.  It  was 
thus  not  the  outburst  of  a  sudden  impulse,  but  the  ex- 
pression and  result  of  an  inward  conviction  inspiring  His 
whole  life,  when  Jesus,  in  establishing  the  ordinance  of 
baptism  after  His  resurrection,  instructs  that  it  be  ad- 
ministered in  His  own  name  and  in  that  of  the  Father 
and  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Jesus  had  claimed  for  Himself 
the  possession  of  the  Holy  Spirit  and  promised  the  Spirit 
to  His  followers  as  the  most  distinctive  gift  of  the  divine 
sovereignty — and,  therefore,  in  the  Creed  of  the  prim- 
itive Church  we  find  the  confession  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
co-ordinated  with  the  confession  of  the  Father  and  the 
Son. 

But  we  must  go  yet  a  few  steps  further  back  if  we 


148   THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

would  thoroughly  grasp  the  basis  for  this  co-ordination. 
The  first  step  leads  us  out  to  John  the  Baptist  in  the  wil- 
derness. As  he  baptized  Jesus  with  water,  God  the  Lord 
anointed  His  Son,  born  of  the  Spirit,  with  the  Spirit  of 
Messianic  authority.  Before  this  occurred,  however,  John 
had  prophesied:  "He  that  cometh  after  me  is  mightier 
than  I,  whose  shoes  I  am  not  worthy  to  bear:  He  shall 
baptize  you  in  the  Holy  Spirit  and  in  fire."  (Matt.  3  :  n.) 
Did  John  in  uttering  these  words  refer  to  the  baptism 
which  Christ  was  to  institute?  By  no  means.  He  re- 
ferred to  the  entire  lifework  of  the  Messiah.  Everything 
which  He  should  accomplish  in  word  and  deed  would 
have  in  view  the  one  supreme  purpose,  that  the  guiding, 
testing,  purifying,  consuming,  inflaming  power  of  the 
Spirit  of  God  should  be  felt  by  all  the  people  and  by  the 
whole  world.  But  in  thus  hoping  and  prophesying,  how- 
ever, John  was  resting  entirely  upon  the  foundation  of 
the  Old  Testament — of  the  life  and  hopes  of  the  Old 
Testament  Church.  In  times  of  the  saddest  collapse, 
whether  of  the  personal  or  of  the  national  life,  what  is 
the  cry  which  bursts  forth  from  the  distressed  hearts  of 
the  people?  "Create  in  me  a  clean  heart,  O  God;  and 
renew  a  right  spirit  within  me."  (Ps.  51  :  10.)  There 
bursts  forth  the  prayer  for  the  Spirit,  the  painful  realiza- 
tion that  the  sins  of  the  people  are  making  God  their 
enemy.  (Isa.  63  :  10) ,  the  hope  that  there  may  be  a  reviv- 
ing of  the  dead  nation  by  the  breath  of  the  Spirit  of  God. 
(Ezek.  37.)  This  nation  had  its  prophets,  who  were  a 
visible  pledge  that  God  was  seeking  to  establish  and 
maintain  His  covenant  and  fellowship  with  them.  This 
He  did,  however,  by  qualifying  them  by  His  Spirit  to 
proclaim  His  will;  and  the  proclamation  of  His  will,  it 
is  true,  culminated  in  the  promise  of  the  Messianic  King. 
But  it  culminated  also  in  the  promise  of  an  era  of  the 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED        149 

Spirit :  "I  will  pour  upon  the  house  of  David,  and  upon 
the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem,  the  Spirit  of  grace  and  of 
supplication."  (Zech.  12  :  10.*) 

To  what  conclusion  are  we  thus  led?  We  see  clearly, 
at  least,  that  the  confession  of  faith  in  the  Holy  Spirit  is 
not  a  theological  dogma  invented  by  the  primitive  Chris- 
tian Church  in  order  to  round  out  its  theory  of  the  Trin- 
ity. We  find  this  confession  in  the  Old  Testament  in 
the  form  of  prayer  and  expectation,  and,  still  further, 
as  a  testimonial  of  an  actual  possession  then  already  en- 
joyed. But  its  chief  support  is  found  in  the  testimony, 
the  life,  and  the  promises  of  Jesus.  Without  this 
acknowledgment  of  the  Spirit,  the  Creed  of  the  primi- 
tive Church  would  have  dropped  out  of  organic  connec- 
tion with  all  the  great  truths  proclaimed  by  Jesus,  with 
the  testimony  of  the  Old  Testament  Church,  with  the 
divine  self-revelation,  and  with  the  displays  of  the  merci- 
ful rule  of  God  in  both  the  old  and  the  new  covenants. 
The  clear  line  of  progressive  revelation  would  have  been 
broken  and  the  harmonious  course  of  redemptive  history 
interrupted,  if  the  confession  of  faith  in  the  Spirit  had 
not  found  a  place  in  the  primitive  Creed  and  precisely  the 
place  which  has  been  assigned  to  it.  So  firmly  is  this 
truth  embedded  in  the  structure  of  the  entire  Confession 
in  whose  light  we  seek  to  walk. 

But  what  shall  we  say  of  the  dual  and  duplex  nature 
thus  ascribed  to  the  mediatorship  between  God  and  man, 
to  which  reference  has  been  made?  Some  light  has,  we 
trust,  already  been  thrown  upon  this  problem.  Faith  in 
the  Spirit,  it  has  been  seen,  was  in  the  primitive  Church 
inseparably  united  with  faith  in  Christ  because  Christ 
Himself  had  lived  in  the  Spirit  when  on  earth,  and  after 


*  Compare  Isa.  32  :i5;  n  -.32;  Ezek.  39  :2g;  Joel  2  : 28f . 


150   THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

His  departure  imparted  the  Spirit  to  His  disciples.  The 
mission  of  Christ  and  His  ministry  culminated  and  at- 
tained their  end,  according  to  the  view  of  these  early  be- 
lievers, in  the  bestowal  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  God  gives 
Christ,  and  through  Him  the  Holy  Spirit.  Christ  and 
the  Spirit  are  not  two  unconnected  entities  standing  side 
by  side.  The  gift  of  the  Spirit  is  rather  the  evidence 
and  goal  of  the  mediatorial  reign  of  Jesus  Christ.  The 
question  then  becomes  simply:  What  is  the  real  aim  of 
the  mediatorial  reign  of  Christ,  since  it  thus  culminates 
in  the  impartation  of  the  Holy  Spirit?  Religion  is  not 
chiefly  and  in  itself  a  knowledge  of  God,  but  the  knowl- 
edge of  God  affecting  us.  What  truths,  in  this  sense 
religious,  had  the  primitive  Church  in  mind  when  it  con- 
fessed, "I  believe  in  the  Holy  Spirit"? 

The  primitive  Church  was  in  position,  from  actual  ob- 
servation as  well  as  from  Scriptural  testimony,  to  know 
something  of  the  power  and  gifts  of  the  Spirit.  The 
Scriptures  presented  to  her  the  Spirit  of  God  as  the  power 
which  transformed  the  empty  primeval  chaos  into  a  scene 
of  marvelous  life  and  fruitfulness.  They  represented 
Him  as  the  breath  of  life,  which  elevated  man  into  the 
likeness  to  God  and  endowed  him  with  power  to  subdue 
the  world.  It  was  this  Spirit,  according  to  the  Scriptures, 
who  filled  Israel's  heroes  and  saints,  kings  and  seers, 
when  they  wrought  mighty  works  of  God  in  the  world. 
From  Him  proceeded  the  miracle  of  prophecy — conscious 
of  its  divine  source,  profound  in  its  faith,  and  clear  in 
its  vision  of  the  future — bearing  its  testimony  to  the 
moral  government  of  God,  His  law  and  His  grace.* 
Upon  Him  rests  the  hope  of  the  sinful  and  the  weak, 


*Numb.  ii  125;  Deut.  34  :g;  Jud.  14  :6,  19;  i  Sam.  10  :6; 
16  : 13;  Isa.  ii  :2;  42  :  i. 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED  151 

when  all  confidence  in  their  own  righteousness  and 
strength  is  shattered.*  He  alone  is  able  to  restore  to  the 
people  their  forfeited  and  ruined  life  and  renew  them 
from  sin  and  guilt  to  holiness  and  peace  and  fullness  of 
life  and  strength.f  In  all  these  utterances,  greatly  varied 
as  they  were,  the  Scriptures  bore  to  the  primitive  Church 
always  the  same  testimony,  i.e. :  The  Spirit  is  the  Power 
of  God,  which  conveys  the  will,  the  power,  the  secrets, 
the  truth,  the  life  of  God  into  the  inmost  soul  of  the 
creature,  of  man  the  sinner  called  to  salvation,  and  there 
gives  them  energizing,  vitalizing  power.  The  Spirit  is 
not  a  being  of  intermediate  character,  in  whom  the  glory 
and  power  of  God  are  somewhat  modified  in  order  that 
men  may  without  danger  approach  nearer  to  Him.  No! 
the  Spirit  is  God  Himself  in  His  immediate  working  upon 
the  heart  of  man,  upon  the  sinful,  in  the  world,  for  the 
gracious  impartation  of  Himself  for  life  and  salvation. 
But  that  which  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures  thus 
taught  the  early  believers  in  regard  to  the  Spirit,  they 
found  abundantly  confirmed  by  their  own  observation  and 
experience.  They  had  observed  the  Spirit  of  God  effect- 
ing in  Jesus  their  Lord  the  power  of  working  miracles; 
prophetic  acquaintance  with  the  secret  counsels  of  God; 
a  life  of  holiness  and  love  and  truth,  of  profound  and 
complete  fellowship  with  God;  an  indwelling  of  the 
Father  in  Him  with  a  power  and  clearness  that  irradiated 
His  whole  life  with  a  mighty  spiritual  energy.  And  they 
had  had  the  personal  experience  that  the  Lord  who  had 
ascended  to  heaven  through  the  Spirit  drew  near  to  them 
with  His  word,  His  truth,  His  life;  that  He,  although 
seated  at  the  right  hand  of  the  Father,  yet  filled  their 


*Ps.  51  : 10;  143  : 10. 

f  Isa.  32  :  15 ;  Zech.  12  : 10;  Ezek  36  : 25ff. 


152   THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

own  souls  with  His  assurances,  His  impulses,  His  pow- 
ers ;  that  He  who  had  departed  from  them  yet  laid  direct 
hold  upon  their  hearts  with  regenerating  spiritual  power. 
All  of  this,  together  with  the  testimony  of  the  Scriptures, 
was  for  them  wrought  into  one  great  harmonious  con- 
ception and  found  living  utterance  in  their  confession: 
I  believe  in  the  Holy  Spirit.  With  their  confession  of 
faith  in  Christ  they  combined  the  statement  of  the  great 
redemptive  acts  that  marked  the  life  of  Christ.  But  with 
their  confession  of  faith  in  the  Spirit  they  logically  and 
appropriately  combined  also  the  statement  of  the  great 
effects  and  blessings  which  have  come  to  the  world 
through  God  and  Christ :  the  holy  Christian  Church,  the 
communion  of  saints,  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  the  resur- 
rection of  the  body  and  the  life  everlasting.  The  Spirit 
was  for  the  early  Church  the  Power  of  God,  through 
which,  by  God's  eternal  will  and  Christ's  redemptive 
work,  a  fellowship  of  faith  arises  in  the  world;  through 
which  the  paternal  love  of  God  and  the  grace  of  Christ 
are  offered  to  men  for  their  personal  participation  and 
become  inward  possessions  of  the  believers'  life.  "The 
grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ"  and  "the  love  of  God" 
find  their  realization  and  consummation  in  the  "com- 
munion of  the  Holy  Spirit."  (2  Cor.  13  :  13.)  In  this 
sense  are  we  to  understand  the  declaration  of  the  early 
Christian  confession  of  faith :  "I  believe  in  the  Holy 
Ghost" — truly  an  utterance  full  of  hope,  of  all-conquer- 
ing assurance,  of  the  humble  despair  of  man's  own 
power — an  utterance  of  genuine,  living  faith. 

II.  The  declaration  of  faith  in  the  Holy  Spirit  has 
maintained  its  place  in  the  Christian  Creed  throughout 
all  periods  of  the  Church's  history.  It  remained  in  force 
even  during  the  critical  interval  when  the  miraculous 
manifestations  of  the  Spirit  gradually  diminished  in  fre- 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED   153 

quency  and  finally  ceased  altogether.  This  required  care- 
ful thought  upon  the  part  of  the  theologians  of  the 
ancient  Church,  as  it  compelled  them  to  inquire  how 
faith  in  the  Holy  Spirit  could  be  combined  with  faith  in 
God;  how  the  Spirit  was  to  be  discriminated  from  the 
Father  and  the  Son  within  the  nature  of  God,  and  yet 
be  equal  to  the  Father  and  the  Son;  and  how  the  Spirit 
lives  and  works  within  the  unity  of  the  divine  nature.  The 
essential  elements  of  the  answer  given  are  found  in  the 
declarations  of  the  Nicene  Creed :  "And  I  believe  in  the 
Holy  Ghost,  the  Lord  and  Giver  of  life,  who  proceedeth 
from  the  Father  and  the  Son,  who  with  the  Father  and 
the  Son  together  is  worshiped  and  glorified,  who  spake 
by  the  prophets."  Faith  in  the  Spirit  became  a  very 
peculiar  and  vital  experience  to  many  a  pious  believer 
in  the  Middle  Ages,  when  his  soul,  burdened  by  the  mis- 
eries of  the  Church  and  the  imperfections  of  the  Chris- 
tian world,  was  cheered  by  the  hope  of  an  era  of  the 
Spirit,  when  pure  truth,  full  liberty  and  perfect  love 
should  fill  the  souls  of  men;  when  no  Church,  no  doc- 
trinal requirements,  no  external  work  should  intrude 
between  the  soul  and  God;  and  when  the  Spirit  should 
itself  alone  and  perfectly  fill  and  unite  and  bless  all 
hearts  in  the  immediate  presence  of  God.  This  faith  of 
the  Creed  is  found,  without  a  trace  of  fanaticism  but 
with  full  and  conscious  congeniality,  in  Luther,  who,  in 
discussing  the  third  article  in  his  Larger  Catechism,  says : 
"This  is  the  force  of  this  article,  which  must  ever  con- 
tinue in  operation.  For  creation  is  accomplished  and  re- 
demption is  finished.  But  the  Holy  Ghost  carries  on  His 
work  without  ceasing  to  the  Last  Day.  And  for  that 
purpose  He  has  appointed  a  congregation  upon  the  earth, 
by  which  He  speaks  and  does  everything.  For  He  has 
not  yet  brought  together  all  His  Christian  people  nor 


154        THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

completed  the  distribution  of  forgiveness.  Therefore  we 
believe  in  Him  who  through  the  Word  daily  brings  us 
into  the  fellowship  of  this  Christian  people,  and  through 
the  same  Word  and  the  forgiveness  of  sins  bestows,  in- 
creases and  strengthens  faith,  in  order  that  when  He  has 
accomplished  it  all  and  we  abide  therein,  and  die  to  the 
world  and  to  all  evil,  He  may  finally  make  us  perfectly 
and  forever  holy;  which  now  we  expect  in  faith  through 
the  Word."  Theology  has  frequently,  as  though  wearied 
by  the  very  fullness  of  the  divine  blessings  and  the  pro- 
found depths  of  the  divine  mysteries,  allowed  the  Spirit 
of  God  to  escape  its  notice  and  substituted  for  Him  the 
spirit  of  the  animate  creation  (a  "motion  created  in 
things,"  Augsburg  Confession)  ;  or  generalized  the  Holy 
Spirit  as  being  the  universal  spirit  of  the  Christian  world 
(Schleiermacher).  It  has  often  done  little  enough  to 
catch  the  full  inspiration  which  is  inherent  in  the  Creed's 
confession  of  the  ever-operative  Holy  Spirit  of  God  and 
which  can  be  received  only  in  fellowship  with  Him  and 
from  Him.  The  doctrine  of  the  Spirit  was  misunder- 
stood when,  in  some  quarters,  even  up  to  the  most  recent 
times,  signs  and  wonders,  speaking  with  tongues  and 
prophesying  were  regarded,  prayed  for,  and  insisted  upon 
as  the  surest  evidences  of  the  presence  of  the  Spirit.  The 
Spirit  appears  in  an  utterly  false  light  when,  as  often  in 
modern  theology,  the  testimony  of  the  New  Testament 
is  interpreted  as  representing  Him  to  be  a  kind  of  super- 
mundane material  being,  a  simple  natural  force,  a  mag- 
ical power,  instead  of  will,  light,  conscious  life,  author 
of  the  Word.  Thus  the  Creed's  article  upon  the  Spirit 
has  had  a  varied  treatment,  and,  perhaps,  its  worst  ex- 
perience has  been  that  it  has  often  found  a  lodgment  in 
the  head  instead  of  in  the  heart,  that  it  has  not  always 
been  appropriated  and  experienced  as  the  source  and 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED       155 

ground  and  power  of  a  profound  inner  confidence,  of 
heroic  struggle  against  evil,  and  a  joyous  and  effectual 
activity  in  the  service  of  Christ.  But  what  is  the  fate  of 
this  article  to-day?  Do  we  still  regard  it  as  unshaken 
and  impregnable,  and  has  it  still  for  us  a  real  value? 

To  both  questions  we  reply  with  a  grateful,  Yes.  That 
God  our  Father  and  Christ  our  Lord  will  manifest  their 
interest  in  us  by  the  sending  of  the  Spirit,  is  for  us  who 
live  in  the  midst  of  inner  perplexities  and  trials  a  truth 
of  the  highest  value.  And  this  value  still  lies  in  the  same 
direction  in  which  the  primitive  Church  sought  and  found 
it,  according  to  the  testimony  of  the  Scriptures.  Let  us 
summon  a  few  witnesses.  A.  von  Oettingen  says :  * 
"The  historical  accomplishment  of  the  universal  act  of 
atonement,  valid  for  the  entire  race,  would  remain  for  the 
individual  man  of  the  present  day  an  unapproachable, 
long-past  event  in  the  realm  of  history  if  God  the  Holy 
Spirit  did  not  by  His  vigorous  self-testimony  constantly 
bring  Christ  into  our  hearts  and  convince  us  of  the  grace 
of  God.  It  is  absolutely  beyond  the  power  of  sinful  man 
to  introduce  himself,  as  it  were,  by  his  own  initiative, 
into  the  fellowship  of  Christ  and  enjoy  the  benefit  of 
His  redeeming  work.  To  produce  in  the  heart  of  the 
conscious  sinner — whether  presumptuous  or  despairing, 
the  assurance  of  the  forgiving  love  of  God  requires  a 
peculiar  redemptive  act.  It  is  through  the  self-witness- 
ing of  the  Holy  Spirit,  which  is  personal  in  its  charac- 
ter, that  our  spirit  must  be  aroused  and  the  new  birth 
into  divine  sonship  effected.  This  is  a  miracle  of  grace." 
Kahlerf  argues  that  the  Spirit  of  God,  by  His  act  in  ap- 
plying salvation  to  the  individual,  furnishes  a  substitute 


*  Lutherische  Dogmatik  II.  2,  p.  297. 

v  Wissenchaft  der  christlichen  Lehre,  §  442. 


156   THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

for  the  former  earthly  presence  of  the  now  ascended 
Christ  in  an  effectual  form  appropriate  to  the  end  in  view. 
"For,  on  the  one  hand,  the  immediate  historical  activity 
of  a  personality  confined  to  a  definite  place  must  remain 
limited,  and  there  must  be  another  agency  of  communi- 
cation, if  there  is  to  be  anything  more  than  a  merely 
posthumous  influence.  Therefore  the  Church  confesses 
her  faith,  not  in  God,  Jesus  as  the  Christ,  and  the  Gospel ; 
but  in  God  the  Father,  the  Son  and  the  Holy  Ghost.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  love  of  God,  being  a  holy  love,  can 
exert  its  attractive  power  upon  the  individual  only  upon 
the  condition  that  the  reality  of  this  love  has  been  con- 
sciously felt  through  its  manifestation  in  Christ.  But  even 
this  conscious  sense  of  the  love  of  God  is  not  experienced 
as  long  as  the  sinner  merely  hears  and  seeks  to  under- 
stand, but  only  when  he  is  immediately  wrought  upon  by 
this  attractive  power  and  thus  enters  into  the  relationship 
of  an  actually  reconciled  sinner.  Accordingly,  the  in- 
ward working  of  the  Spirit  in  man  is  the  culmination 
of  the  reconciliation  founded  upon  the  work  of  Christ, 
and  thus  the  outpouring  of  the  Spirit  is  the  conclusion 
of  that  work."  And,  finally,  Schlatter :  *  "Through  the 
sending  of  the  Spirit,  the  grace  of  God,  which  calls  us  to 
Him  and  unites  us  with  Him,  is  implanted  in  the  current 
of  history.  The  Spirit  is  the  constant  manifestation  of  the 
presence  of  God  in  the  course  of  history.  The  sending 
of  Christ  marks  one  incident  in  that  manifestation  as  the 
act  of  revelation.  But  we  do  not  have  to  look  for  the 
gracious  work  of  God  only  to  the  past,  nor  only  in  the 
past  find  ground  for  certainty  in  our  relationship  to  God. 
As  the  Giver  of  the  Spirit,  God  has  filled  our  own  age 
and  history  with  His  rich  gift.  Therefore,  if  we  would 


*  Das  christliche  Dogma,  p.  367. 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED   157 

bear  witness  to  Christ  it  is  indispensable  that  we  bear 
witness  to  the  Spirit,  for  the  Spirit  is  the  ever-present 
evidence  of  Christ." 

The  importance  of  the  third  article  of  the  Creed,  pre- 
sented in  the  above  citations  in  dogmatic  form,  is  most 
directly  and  instinctively  felt  by  every  earnest  heart 
striving  for  the  welfare  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  in  view  of 
the  present  needs  of  the  Church  and  the  unceasing  storm 
and  stress  of  the  inner  life.  Intellectual  force  and  noble 
purpose  are,  indeed,  enlisted  in  the  service  of  the  Church 
to-day.  There  is  no  lack  of  men  of  talent  who  are  devot- 
ing themselves,  with  all  that  they  are  and  all  that  they 
can  do,  to  the  advancement  of  the  Church  of  Christ. 
Nevertheless,  there  is  much  in  the  present  condition  of 
the  Church  to  distress  us  and  fill  us  with  anxiety  and 
fear.  Many  a  cry  of  alarm  arises  from  earnest  hearts, 
longing  for  more  harmony,  more  vigorous  life,  more  con- 
quering power,  more  men  of  prophetic  and  apostolic 
character.  We  keenly  feel  that  we  stand  in  need  of  other 
gifts  and  powers  than  men  of  high  natural  endowments 
can  call  forth  from  their  own  hearts  and  spirits.  What 
we  now  are  and  now  possess  must  be  fortified,  given 
wings,  empowered,  indued  with  higher  energy  if  it  is 
to  really  ward  off  the  perils  threatening  the  Church.  We 
look  about  us  in  society  and  in  the  world,  seeking  to  dis- 
cover in  some  quarter  sources  of  higher  energy.  But  we 
see  everywhere  the  same  poverty,  the  same  great  need. 
We  find  ourselves  bound  down  to  the  sphere  of  human 
helplessness  and  must,  with  the  whole  believing  Church, 
so  remain  unless  a  new  source  of  power  from  God  shall 
be  opened  up,  a  divine  energy  which  shall  be  able  to  re- 
inforce the  gifts  and  powers  already  existing  and  call 
others  into  being.  "I  believe  in  the  Holy  Ghost!" — and 
our  own  separate  individual,  personal,  Christian  life  ?  The 


158   THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

idea  pervading  all  the  above  citations  is  a  correct  one. 
There  is  need  of  a  divine  creative  work  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  if  Christ  is  to  be  brought  near  to  us  from  His 
historical  remoteness  and  His  heavenly  exaltation  and 
become  formed  within  us  as  a  living  and  controlling 
power.  But  we  know  and  realize  only  too  keenly  in  our 
own  experience  what  obstacles  our  hearts  interpose  to 
such  a  work  of  the  Spirit.  We  grow  up  in  a  Christian 
community,  receive  a  Christian  education  under  the  di- 
rection of  Christian  teachers  and  the  Church.  The  words 
of  Christ  are  an  authority  for  us;  the  teachings  of  the 
Gospel  stand  before  us  with  all  the  force  of  sacred  tradi- 
tion. We  are  thus  dependent  upon  Christ — a  depend- 
ence which  often  enough  proves  to  be  a  wholesome  and 
helpful  influence  in  our  lives.  But  when  doubts  arise 
within  us,  gnawing  and  devouring  and  consuming  and 
destroying  all  our  hopes,  then  there  stirs  within  our  souls 
a  sense  of  a  deep  want,  of  painful  poverty,  and  we  sigh : 
Is  there  then  no  power  that  is  able,  despite  my  own  reason- 
ings and  quibblings,  to  transform  the  external  truth  upon 
which  I  gaze  into  a  joyous  assurance  within  my  own  heart? 
The  moral  requirements  of  Christianity  impress  us  deeply 
by  their  sublimity.  We  make  earnest  efforts  to  obey  the 
commandments  of  love  to  God  and  to  our  neighbor.  We 
exercise  ourselves  in  prayer.  We  take  our  part  in  the 
daily  life  of  the  church.  We  try  to  follow  in  the  foot- 
steps of  Christ.  But  in  many  a  silent  hour  we  are  as- 
sailed by  the  humiliating  conviction:  Yet  all  of  this  in 
your  life  is,  after  all,  but  a  sort  of  external  keeping  of  a 
law.  All  of  this  falls  far  short  of  a  living  force  within, 
a  direct,  voluntary  movement  in  joyous  liberty.  Your 
Christian  life  often  enough  assumes  for  you  the  aspect 
of  a  dull,  distasteful  law;  whereas  the  law  should  long 
since  have  been  transformed  in  the  freshness  of  your 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED   159 

renewed  life  into  a  direct  assurance,  and  your  slavish 
service  glorified  into  royal  liberty  and  dominion.  Per- 
haps you  are  able  to  apprehend  and  practice  Christianity 
as  a  law;  but  do  you  transform  it  into  a  spirit?  And  we 
must  go  yet  a  step  further  in  our  self-examination,  even 
when  it  leads  us  to  the  most  profound  humiliation.  Does 
it  not  sometimes  happen  in  our  Christian  life  that  the 
Gospel,  which  we  thought  we  had  so  thoroughly  accepted, 
suddenly  appears  to  us  as  something  far  away  and 
strange,  and  that  we  clearly  realize  how  deep  a  gap 
yawns  between  it  and  us?  It  may  happen  that  into  the 
midst  of  our  Christian  activities  there  is  injected  from 
within  our  hearts  a  spirit  of  self-seeking  and  wicked- 
ness, and  we  discover  that  there  is  slumbering  within  us, 
as  under  a  thin  covering,  a  tremendous  opposition  to 
God,  a  strong  disposition  to  deny  and  disobey  Him.  We 
then  clearly  realize  that  one  short  further  step  would 
result  in  complete  surrender  and  collapse.  In  such  sea- 
sons of  temptation  we  look  earnestly  within.  We  clearly 
see  that  in  these  alarming  experiences  there  is  but  re- 
vealed what  was  all  along  lying  concealed  in  the  depths 
of  the  soul.  We  discover  thus  the  obstinate  discord  of 
human  nature,  the  disposition  of  our  inmost  souls  toward 
God  the  Lord,  and  with  alarm  and  ardent  longing  we 
utter  the  heartfelt  sigh :  Who  will  deliver  me  from  my- 
self? Who  will  transform  my  heart?  Who  is  the  re- 
generating Power  for  my  nature  steeped  in  wickedness? 
Then,  and  then  only,  do  we  in  some  fitting  measure  lay 
hold  upon  the  comfort,  the  encouragement,  the  holy  con- 
fidence which  live,  and  which  may  and  should  live  for 
all,  in  the  confession :  "I  believe  in  the  Holy  Ghost."  This, 
then,  ceases  to  be  a  mere  formula,  a  doctrine,  a  tradi- 
tion. It  becomes  a  precious  living  and  life-giving  pos- 
session. 


160   THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

But  is  it  also  truth?  Is  it  not  a  dream,  the  illusion  of 
a  more  childlike  and  credulous  age,  an  unproved  figment 
of  the  imagination?  This  is  the  last,  but  also  the  most 
serious  question  which  is  forced  upon  us.  What  proof 
have  we  for  the  existence  and  agency  of  the  Holy  Spirit  ? 
Proofs?  Subjective  proofs  chiefly,  the  evidence  derived 
from  our  own  inner  experience.  When  we  experience 
that  what  God  has  given  in  Christ  becomes  spirit  and 
power  within  us ;  when  we  feel  with  instinctive  certainty 
that  this  is  not  our  work,  because  we  find  in  ourselves 
too  strong  an  opposition  to  it — then  we  believe  that  we 
are,  at  least  in  some  measure,  experiencing  the  truth  that 
the  holy  and  sanctifying  Spirit  is  working  in  the  world. 
But — we  believe.  Faith,  even  when  it  assumes  the  form 
of  faith  in  the  Holy  Spirit,  is,  in  the  last  analysis,  "assur- 
ance of  things  hoped  for,  a  conviction  of  things  not  seen." 
There  is  no  objective,  i.e.,  outwardly  compelling  evidence 
for  the  activity  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  We  refrain  from 
seeking  such  evidence  in  the  occasional  extraordinary 
and  wonderful  occurrences  in  the  Christian  life;  for 
proofs  of  this  kind  are  not  convincing  unless  there  has 
been  an  antecedent  faith  in  the  Holy  Ghost.  Nor  do  we 
carefully  investigate  the  incidents  of  our  own  inner  life 
to  discover  whether  the  good  features  of  it  may  not  be 
divided  into  such  as  might  be  explained  by  our  natural 
powers  and  disposition  and  such  as  betray  the  presence 
of  the  Spirit  by  their  extraordinary  force,  or  the  strength 
of  the  feelings  accompanying  them,  or  by  their  apparent 
spontaneity.  There  is  only  one  final  and  reliable  basis 
for  our  faith  in  the  Holy  Spirit,  i.e.,  the  promise  of 
Christ  and  of  the  Father.  The  Father,  who  gives  the 
kingdom,  was  the  starting-point  of  the  preaching  of 
Jesus;  Christ,  who  is  the  Son  of  God,  and  reigns  as 
Lord,  was  its  center;  the  Spirit,  the  Comforter,  who 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED        161 

should  come,  was  its  conclusion.  To  this  promise  we 
cling  when  inward  trials  and  storms  threaten  to  engulf 
us.  In  its  light  our  own  past  and  present  become  great, 
significant  and  holy,  and,  therefore,  true  and  complete. 
For  now,  when  we  have  appropriated  and  with  simplicity 
believe  Christ's  promise  of  the  Spirit,  how  does  not 
every  event  of  our  lives  which  arrests  our  attention, 
stirs  our  hearts,  or  illuminates  our  minds  with  thoughts 
of  God  or  Christ  become  a  pledge  to  us  of  the  Spirit's 
presence !  In  the  light  of  our  faith  in  the  promised 
Spirit,  every  admonition  of  conscience,  every  comfort- 
ing experience,  every  rising  emotion  of  joyous  faith  and 
power  to  do  good,  every  triumph  of  love  and  hope  within 
us,  every  longing  for  God  and  every  sensation  of  blessed 
union  with  Him,  every  prayer  welling  up  from  the  depths 
of  our  hearts,  every  resolution  to  walk  in  sincerity  and 
purity,  every  clear  vision  of  the  truth  and  the  ways  of 
God — all  this  becomes  for  us  an  experiencing  of  the 
Spirit,  and  we  feel  ourselves  favored  of  God  and  securely 
kept  because  the  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  the 
love  of  the  Father  not  only  greet  us  from  afar,  but  re- 
veal themselves  within  us  by  leading  us  into  and  pre- 
serving us  in  the  fellowship  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  It  is 
true,  we  are  even  then  still  conscious  of  divided  powers 
and  discord  and  shortcomings  in  our  inward  nature.  But 
we  will  neither  despair  nor  tremble.  Like  Paul,  we  are 
sustained  by  the  assurance :  "The  Lord  is  the  Spirit :  and 
where  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is,  there  is  liberty.  But  we 
all,  with  unveiled  face  beholding  as  in  a  mirror  the  glory 
of  the  Lord,  are  transformed  into  the  same  image  from 
glory  to  glory,  even  as  from  the  Lord  the  Spirit."  (2  Cor. 

3  :  17,  18.) 

"I  believe  in  the  Holy  Ghost."     Spirit-faith  is  at  the 
present  time  again  making  its  way  with  new  energy,  in 


162    THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

contrast  with  the  matter-faith,  or  materialism,  which  for 
a  time  held  tyrannical  sway  over  the  minds  of  men.  But 
it  is  a  spirit-faith  of  the  most  general  kind,  a  faith  at- 
taching itself  to  the  human  spirit.  One  is  heard  pro- 
claiming this  faith  with  the  full,  clear  and  uncomfort- 
ing  conviction  that  the  human  spirit  is  the  only  spirit  ex- 
isting in  the  universe,  and  that  it  can  consequently  be- 
come and  accomplish  only  what  it  is  able  by  its  own 
powers  to  become  and  accomplish.  Others  proclaim  the 
same  doctrine,  but  seek  to  modify  its  comfortless  and 
terrifying  aspect  by  honoring  this  human  spirit  with  a 
divine  name.  We  hear  of  Idealism  here  and  Idealism 
there — an  Idealism  of  noble  endeavor  and  lofty  aims, 
but  yet  something  utterly  and  entirely  different  from  that 
which  the  Church  of  Christ  believes  and  confesses  and 
glories  in  and  hopes  for  when  she  declares :  "I  believe  in 
the  Holy  Ghost." 


CHAPTER  XI 
A  Holy  Christian  Church,  the  Communion  of  Saints 


"Dear  is  to  me  the  holy  Maid, — 

I  never  can  forget  her; 
For  glorious  things  of  her  are  said; 
Than  life  I  love  her  better. 
So  dear  and  good 
That  if  I  should 
Afflicted  be 
It  moves  not  me; 
For  she  my  soul  will  ravish 

With  constancy  and  love's  pure  fire, 
And  with  her  bounty  lavish 
Fulfill  my  heart's  desire." 

How  difficult  it  would  be  for  Christians  of  the  present 
age  to  feel  but  a  little  of  the  profound,  burning,  joyous 
affection  for  the  Church  which  must  have  filled  the  heart 
of  the  singer  of  these  words.  Indeed,  if  we  did  not  know 
from  other  sources  whom  Luther  meant  by  the  "holy 
Maid"  we  would,  perhaps,  still  be  casting  about  for  an 
explanation  of  the  title.  But  we  are  told  that  it  is  "A  hymn 
of  the  holy  Christian  Church."  The  Church !  Who  can 
say  to-day  that  she  has  taken  possession  of  his  heart ;  that 
he  cannot  forget  her;  that  she  is  his  comfort  even  in 
the  greatest  misfortunes  ?  The  Church !  In  many  pro- 
fessed Christians  the  word  awakens  only  a  sense  of  re- 

163 


164        THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

pugnance,  if  not  bitter  hostility,  and  countless  numbers 
are  entirely  unmoved  by  it. 

Whence  this  marked  difference  between  the  Reformer 
and  the  children  of  the  Reformation?  Has  the  Church 
so  greatly  changed  within  these  few  centuries?  Had 
she  in  Luther's  day  none  of  the  "spots  and  wrinkles" 
which  are  now  said  to  deface  her  and  make  it  impos- 
sible to  love  her  warmly?  But  who  does  not  know  how 
bitterly  Luther  lamented  the  condition  of  the  Church 
in  his  age!  And  to  anyone  at  all  acquainted  with  the 
history  of  the  Church  it  must  at  least  appear  doubtful 
whether  she  is  really  more  disfigured  to-day  than  she 
was  then.  Why  then  is  it  so  difficult  for  us  to  cherish 
warm  affection  for  her  and  to  esteem  her  as  highly  as 
did  Luther? 

There  are  probably  two  reasons  for  this.  The  Church 
which  Luther  loved  can  no  more  be  found  by  many. 
They  no  longer  know  what  the  Church  is,  But  even  if 
this  is  known,  the  unhealthy  spirit  of  the  age  makes  it 
difficult  to  appreciate  her  inestimable  value. 

What  is  the  Church  ?  Luther  lamented  that  this  "blind, 
indistinct  word"  has  been  used  in  the  Creed.  He  would 
rather  have  read  instead :  "I  believe  that  there  is  a  Chris- 
tian, holy  people."  And,  in  fact,  the  lack  of  clearness 
in  this  word  has  occasioned  an  endless  amount  of  con- 
fusion. Luther,  therefore,  in  his  translation  of  the  New 
Testament,  has  always  used  the  word  "congregation" 
(Gemeinde)  as  the  German  equivalent  of  the  Greek 
"ecclesia."  But  since  the  name  "church"  has  now  been 
universally  adopted,  we  shall  employ  it  instead  of  the 
word  "congregation"  preferred  by  Luther. 

In  the  New  Testament  we  first  meet  with  the  word 
"church"  as  it  falls  from  the  lips  of  Jesus  (Matt.  16  :  18), 
and  it  is  uttered  in  the  same  tone  of  inward  fervor  and 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED        165 

joyful  enthusiasm  displayed  in  Luther's  hymn.  It  was 
at  that  supremely  important  turning-point  in  the  ministry 
of  the  Lord  when  Peter,  responding  in  the  name  of  all 
the  disciples  to  the  question  addressed  to  them  by  the 
Master,  pronounced  the  clear,  positive  and  enthusiastic 
testimony  to  Jesus  as  the  Messiah  and  the  Son  of  the  liv- 
ing God,  and  thereby  made  it  manifest  that  the  preceding 
labor  of  the  Lord  in  the  instruction  of  His  disciples  had 
attained  its  end.  The  heart  of  Jesus  is  stirred  with  the 
profoundest  delight  by  this  confession.  The  foundation 
has  now  been  laid  upon  which  He  can  further  build : 
"On  this  rock  willl  build  my  Church." '  Whether  by  this 
"rock"  the  Saviour  meant  to  designate  the  faith  which 
Peter  thus  expressed,  or  Peter  himself,  to  whom  a  posi- 
tion of  leadership  was  to  be  assigned  in  the  work  of  estab- 
lishing the  Church,  it  was,  even  under  the  latter  sup- 
position, not  the  man  "Simon,  the  son  of  Jonas,"  who 
was  meant,  but  the  disciple  to  whom  not  flesh  and  blood, 
but  the  Father  of  Jesus  in  heaven,  had  revealed  the  glori- 
ous truth.  With  this  confession  of  their  faith,  this  little 
band  of  men  rose  above  what  "men  said"  of  the  Son  of 
man,  and  thus  began  their  separation  from  all  others 
of  the  human  race.  This  is  to  be  the  distinctive  trait  of 
the  Church  of  Christ — it  is  to  be  built  upon  faith  in  Him, 
the  promised  King  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  the  Son  of 
the  living  God. 

In  the  following  sentence,  the  Lord  reveals  the  incom- 
parable importance  attaching  to  this  His  Church.  He 
knows  well  that  the  kingdom  of  Satan  will  open  its  gates 
in  order  by  its  great  power  and  guile  to  destroy  this 
Church,  which  will  be  so  deadly  hostile  to  its  malicious 
schemes,  and  hence  so  bitterly  hated.  But  He  knows  also 
that  this  rampart  against  the  power  of  the  adversary  is 
indispensably  necessary  for  the  human  race,  and,  there- 


166        THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

fore,  indestructible.  "The  gates  of  Hades  shall  not  pre- 
vail against  it."  * 

But  we  dare  not  understand  Jesus  as  using  this  word 
"church"  as  a  mere  name — simply  a  term  to  designate 
the  entire  number  of  those  believing  on  Him,  as  we  use 
the  terms  "animal"  or  "plant"  to  embrace  a  great  num- 
ber of  separate  objects  which  have  no  connection  with  one 
another  and  which  are  far  from  constituting  in  any  sense 
a  unity.  On  the  contrary,  the  Greek  word  "ecclesia"  is 
equivalent  to  the  Old  Testament  word  "Rahal,"  the 
national  congregation  of  Israel,  which  God  desired  to 
be  a  unit,  differentiated  and  separated  from  all  other 
peoples  on  the  earth,  feeling  and  proving  itself  one.  Be- 
lievers in  Christ  are  the  nation  of  the  King,  Jesus  Christ, 
by  their  common  faith  most  intimately  bound  to  Him, 
feeling  and  proving  themselves  to  be  a  unit.  The  same 
truth  is  taught  in  the  second  passage  in  which  Jesus 
speaks  of  the  Church,  i.e.,  Matt.  18  :  17.  The  sinning 
brother  is  to  be  rebuked,  if  necessary,  in  the  presence  of 
other  brothers,  and,  if  need  be,  in  the  Church.  The  in- 
dividual members  of  the  Church  are,  therefore,  to  feel 
themselves  brethren,  a  family  of  children  of  God.  They 
should  seek  to  open  the  eyes  of  the  erring  brother  to  his 
sin.  If  individual  brothers  cannot  succeed  in  this,  then 
the  entire  body  of  brethren,  "the  Church,"  should  lead  the 
erring  one  back  to  the  right  path. 

In  what  way  this  shall  be  done,  what  rules  and  regula- 
tions are  to  be  observed  in  the  discharge  of  this  duty, 
Jesus  does  not  indicate  at  all.  For  this,  no  instructions 
can  be  given  which  will  be  found  adapted  to  all  times  and 


*  Accordingly,  the  Augsburg  Confession  declares :  "The  Chris- 
tian Church  is  nothing  else  than  the  assembly  of  all  believers." 
"Also  they  teach,  there  must  always  be  and  continue  one  holy 
Christian  Church." 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED        167 

all  circumstances.  If  there  be  but  a  real  inner  union 
among  Christians,  if  but  the  spiritual  welfare  of  each 
lies  near  to  the  heart  of  all,  then  this  brotherly  love  will, 
from  time  to  time,  find  the  proper  external  regulations 
which  are  an  indispensable  necessity  in  every  association 
of  men  if  there  is  to  be  a  wholesome  influence  of  one 
member  upon  another.  The  Lord,  therefore,  prescribes 
only  that  which  the  brotherly  love  prevailing  in  His 
Church  demands,  i.e.,  a  strong  desire  to  promote  the 
spiritual  welfare  of  the  brother  and  contribute  to  his 
salvation — a  desire  which  spares  the  feelings  of  the 
brother  as  much  as  possible,  and  to  this  end  first  privately 
points  out  to  him  his  wrong — but  which  also  leaves  noth- 
ing possible  undone,  and  to  this  end  does  not  spare  him 
the  disgrace  of  having  his  guilt  known,  if  need  be,  by 
others — even  by  the  entire  body  of  brethren.  This  spirit 
of  genuine  brotherly  love  will  recognize  the  necessity  of 
fixed  regulations  to  be  observed  in  the  family  circle,  and 
from  time  to  time  prescribe  the  proper  forms. 

But  are  they  right  who  would  have  us  read  in  these 
words  of  Jesus  a  code  of  instructions  as  to  the  proper 
form  of  government  in  the  Church?  They  tell  us  that 
He  here  evidently  means,  not  a  summoning  together  of 
the  whole  Church,  but  only  the  assembling  of  the  local 
congregation.  By  "church"  He  understands,  therefore, 
the  individual  congregation.  And,  in  committing  to  this 
the  decision  as  to  its  offending  member,  He  declares  the 
single  congregation  to  be  autonomous.  The  party  in 
Germany  which  is  shouting  for  a  "free  Christianity,"  and 
yet  cannot  conceal  from  itself  the  fact  that  the  casting 
aside  of  all  regulations  in  the  congregations  would  also 
destroy  all  cohesion  and  even  imperil  the  existence  of 
the  congregations  themselves,  has  recently  adopted  the 
rallying-cry :  "Not  the  Church,  but  the  congregation!" 


168   THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

But  the  words  of  Jesus  have  no  bearing  whatever  upon 
this  question.  By  the  term  "church"  He  does  not  mean 
the  individual  congregation  in  contradistinction  from  the 
entire  body  of  congregations.  This  is  proved  by  the 
earlier  passage,  in  which  He  speaks  of  all  who  believe  on 
Him  as  "my  Church."  And  in  the  present  passage  it  is 
left  entirely  undetermined  what  is  the  extent  of  the  circle 
of  brethren  which  is  to  endeavor  to  reclaim  the  erring 
brother.  As  long  as  the  little  band  of  twelve  traveling 
through  the  land  with  Jesus  constituted  "His  Church," 
He  meant  by  the  word  just  that  little  company.  When 
the  number  of  His  followers  became  separated  locally, 
it  was  necessary  to  organize  them  into  individual  congre- 
gations in  order  to  carry  out  the  instructions  of  the  Lord. 
When  other  congregations  were  also  affected  by  the  con- 
duct of  the  transgressor,  they  were  called  upon  to  assist 
in  the  discipline.  In  cases  of  necessity,  an  attempt  was 
made  to  secure  the  judgment  or  action  of  the  entire 
Church  when  it  appeared  that  the  end  sought  by  Christ 
could  be  attained  in  no  other  way.  The  term  "church," 
as  used  by  Christ,  had  nothing  to  do  with  numbers  or 
locality.  The  smallest  circle  of  believers — though  only 
two  or  three  were  assembled  in  His  name — is  the  Church 
of  Jesus,  His  people,  just  as  truly  as  the  entire  congre- 
gation of  believers  on  earth. 

To  not  a  few  well-meaning  Christians  the  word 
"church"  appears  to  be  especially  uncongenial.  They 
prefer  to  speak  of  the  "kingdom  of  God."  At  the  mention 
of  the  latter  their  hearts  beat  more  warmly.  To  labor  for 
this  is  to  them  a  holy  joy.  Some  have  even  placed  the 
two  conceptions  in  direct  contrast,  regarding  the  kingdom 
of  God  as  a  divine  and  the  Church  as  a  human  conception. 
But  those  who  do  so  use  the  word  "church"  in  a  sense 
entirely  different  from  that  of  Jesus,  understanding  by  it 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED        169 

the  external  regulations  adopted  by  the  Church  in  various 
times  and  places.  But  this  conception  stands  in  direct 
opposition  to  the  reference  of  Jesus  to  "my  Church,"  and 
to  all  that  He  has  said  in  regard  to  it.  And  are  not  all 
members  of  the  Church  of  Christ  also  participants  in 
His  kingdom — He  their  King,  and  they  clinging  to  Him 
in  faith  and  subject  to  Him,  while  bound  together  in  love 
and  serving  one  another?  The  difference  between  the 
two  conceptions  is  only  that  when  we  speak  of  the  king- 
dom of  God,  or  of  Christ,  we  have  most  prominently  in 
mind  the  King  and  His  dealings  with  us;  when  we  use 
the  word  church,  we  think,  of  those  who  are  united  by 
their  common  faith  in  Christ  and  live  in  union  with 
Him.  The  kingdom  of  God  comes  when  Jesus  conies 
to  men ;  the  Church  is  built  up  when  men  believe  in  Him. 
This  formal,  but  not  real  difference  in  the  signification 
of  the  words  makes  it  very  evident  why  the  Lord  speaks, 
not  of  the  kingdom,  but  of  the  Church,  when  designating 
the  faith  of  men  as  its  foundation.  Hence  everything  in 
the  discourses  of  Jesus  which  refers,  not  to  the  King,  but 
to  the  subjects  of  the  kingdom  applies  to  the  Church.  Of 
this  Church  it  is  said  that  it  springs  from  the  seed  of  the 
Word  of  God;  that  it  shall  grow  and  become  a  great 
tree;  that  it  shall  diffuse  its  influence  like  leaven;  that 
the  eyes  of  the  Lord  detect  the  tares  among  the  wheat, 
although  we  may  be  unable  to  discriminate  between  the 
true  and  the  false. 

But  what  shall  we  say  to  those  who,  in  their  hostility 
to  the  word  "church,"  maintain  that  it  was  not  used  by 
Christ  at  all,  but  inserted  in  His  discourses  at  a  later 
age?  We  may  remind  them  that  Paul  in  all  his  epistles 
freely  uses  this  word  as  one  familiar  to  all  Christians, 
applying  it  to  the  earliest  Christian  congregation.  This 
apostle  was  evidently  not  the  first  "churchman,"  as  he 


170   THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

has  been  called  by  some.  He  only  accepted  with  soul 
aglow  that  which  the  disciples  had  received  from  their 
Lord,  and  sought  to  impress  the  glorious  truth  upon  the 
hearts  of  all  whom  he  could  win  to  the  faith.  What  rev- 
erence for  the  Church  and  love  for  it  are  manifest  when 
he  declares  himself  unworthy  to  be  called  an  apostle, 
and  the  chief  of  sinners,  because  he  "persecuted  the 
Church  of  God" !  It  is  just  because  he  had  once  regarded 
this  company  of  people  as  unfit  to  associate  with  the  rest 
of  mankind  and  had  hated  them  as  a  strange  and  in- 
sufferable body  intruding  upon  society,  that  he  can — now 
that  he  recognizes  them  as  the  people  of  God  and  the 
Church  of  Christ — so  profoundly  realize  that  they  are 
an  association  incomparable,  wonderful,  beyond  all  con- 
ception great  and  precious.  Hence,  he  always  looks  up 
with  amazement,  almost  with  worship,  to  this  miraculous 
creation  of  the  Lord,  and  develops  in  glowing  colors  the 
figurative  representations  of  the  Church  suggested  by  the 
words  of  Jesus. 

Is  it  not  astounding — can  it  be  possible — that  in  the 
midst  of  the  great  multitude  who  are  "by  nature  the  chil- 
dren of  wrath,"  servants  of  sin  and  death,  there  should 
be  a  little  flock,  the  Church  of  the  Lord,  which  is  "sancti- 
fied in  Christ,"  "loved  by  Christ,"  "all  the  children  of 
God,"  "become  free  from  sin  and  servants  of  righteous- 
ness," who  "live  unto  the  Lord  and  die  unto  the  Lord," 
and,  therefore,  "shall  also  live  with  Him" !  *  These  char- 
acteristics, common  to  them  all  and  separating  them 
from  all  others  of  the  human  race,  bind  them  together 
in  a  union  so  close  that  all  differences  among  them  vanish, 
and  there  is  here  "neither  Jew  nor  Greek,  neither  bond 


*  Eph.  2:3;!  Cor.  1:2;  Eph.  5  : 25 ;  Gal.  3  : 26 ;  Rom.  6  :  18 ; 
14  :8;  6  :8. 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED        171 

nor  free,  no  male  nor  female ;  for  ye  all  are  one  in  Christ 
Jesus";  all  so  intimately  bound  together  that  they  con- 
stitute one  body,  the  body  of  Christ,  He  the  Head  and 
they  the  members,  sharing  with  one  another  their  joys 
and  sorrows,  clinging  to  one  another  despite  all  that  seems 
to  separate  them,  feeling  their  need  of  one  another,  and, 
therefore,  deeply  interested  in  one  another  and  always 
ready  to  extend  to  one  another  a  helping  hand.* 

At  another  time,  he  looks  upon  the  Church  as  a  building, 
that  has  no  equal  upon  earth.  Its  foundation,  laid  by 
God  Himself,  is  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  constantly  growing 
in  breadth  and  height.  It  is  "a  holy  temple  in  the  Lord," 
"a  sanctuary  of  God  in  the  Spirit,"  so  that  there  is  in 
it  an  actual  fulfillment  of  the  wonderful  Old  Testament 
prophecy :  "I  will  dwell  in  them,  and  walk  in  them ;  and 
I  will  be  their  God,  and  they  shall  be  my  people."  f  Then, 
again,  the  Church  is  for  him  the  virgin  bride,  led  to 
Christ  and  married  to  Him,  as  completely  one  with  Him 
as  though  become  His  flesh  as  a  wife  is  one  with  her 
husband,  belonging  to  Him  so  absolutely  that  He  would 
be  deprived  of  something  essential  if  He  had  her  not.  As 
the  head  without  the  body  would  be  no  head,  so  Christ 
would  not  be  Christ,  not  the  King,  if  He  had  no  body 
belonging  to  Him,  if  He  had  no  Church.  Therefore,  He 
cannot  do  otherwise  than  foster  and  cherish  His  Church, 
as  a  husband,  being  one  flesh  with  his  wife,  is  not  in  a 
position  to  hate  his  wife,  but  rather  seeks  her  welfare 
as  his  own,  because  he  is  thereby  really  promoting  his 
own  happiness.  If  it  is  an  unfathomable  mystery,  and 
yet  an  indisputable  fact,  that  a  man  can  in  another  human 
being  see,  love  and  cherish  his  own  self,  much  more  un- 


*Gal.  3  :28;  i  Cor.  12  :  12,  27;  21  -.25;  Eph.  4  : 16. 
f  I  Cor.  3  : 9,  n  ;  Eph.  2  :  21 ;  2  Cor.  6  :  16. 


172        THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

fathomable  is  the  relation  existing  between  Christ  and 
His  Church.  "Great  is  the  mystery."  *  There  is  some- 
thing so  wonderful  about  the  Church  that  the  apostle 
himself  cannot  fathom  it,  not  to  speak  of  representing 
it  in  any  adequate  way  to  others.  But  there  is  also  some- 
thing so  glorious  and  precious  about 'it  that  he  is  com- 
pelled to  speak  of  it  again  and  again,  though  with  stam- 
mering tongue. 

Paul  does  not  allow  himself  to  be  at  all  disturbed  in  his 
rapturous  delight  in  this  Church  by  the  knowledge  that 
it  is  by  no  means  without  spot  or  wrinkle.  The  Lord, 
who  is  the  Saviour  of  this,  His  body,  has  yet  much  to  do 
to  it  before  He  can  present  it  to  His  Father  "holy  and 
without  blemish."f  Just  as  little  does  it  affect  his  reverent 
admiration  of  the  Church  that  some  persons  are  counted 
as  belonging  to  it  whom  the  all-seeing  eye  of  the  Lord 
cannot  recognize  as  members  of  His  body.  Just  because 
Paul  is  well  aware  that  "The  Lord  knoweth  them  that 
are  His,"  but  that  he  himself  is  not  authorized  to  pass 
judgment  upon  the  faith  of  individuals,  he  applies  the 
name  "church"  to  all  congregations  which  have  been 
gathered  by  the  Gospel  and  baptism,  even  though  there 
were  serious  blemishes  upon  them  and  it  was  certain 
that  not  all  their  members  were  sound  in  the  faith ;  as,  for 
example,  the  congregation  at  Corinth,  which  was  torn  by 
discord  and  indifferent  to  offences  against  morality  which 
were  unheard  of  even  among  the  heathen,  and  even  the 
Galatian  congregation,  which  he  declares  to  be  in  danger 
of  losing  Christ.^  But  he  who  should  imagine  that  these 
early  Christian  congregations  had,  nevertheless,  always 
presented  such  an  aspect  of  purity  that  the  apostle's  heart 

*2  Cor.  ii  :  2;  Eph.  5  :3if.;  I,  23 ;  5  :  2O.ff. 

fEph.  5  :27. 

1 1  Cor.  i  :  2-;  3  : 3 ;  5  :  i ;  Gal.  1:255:4. 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED        173 

could  rejoice  in  them  must  never  have  read  with  open 
eyes  the  letters  addressed  to  them.  Had  he  done  so,  he 
would  more  probably  be  found  asking  how  it  could  be 
possible  that  congregations  gathered  by  such  an  apostle 
should  be  so  "foolish"  and  "carnal,"  and  how  Paul  could, 
despite  their  defects,  still  speak  so  highly  of  the  Church 
of  his  day.  The  eye  of  his  faith  discerns  the  gold  among 
the  dross  that  still  is  mingled  with  it,  and  perceives  the 
radiant  glory  of  the  Church  despite  the  deep  shadows 
that  have  not  yet  been  dispelled.  He  fervently  longs  to 
behold  the  Church  of  Christ,  and  he  therefore  finds  it. 

That  other  trait  of  the  Church  which  alienates  so  many 
in  our  day,  i.e.,  that  order,  and  not  individual  caprice, 
rules  within  it,  was  so  far  from  giving  offence  to 
the  apostle  that  he  contended  for  it  with  all  his  en- 
ergy. For  God,  whose  temple  the  Church  is,  "is  not  a 
God  of  confusion,  but  of  peace."  Love,  which,  as  the 
greatest  of  the  primary  virtues,  must  determine  all  things 
in  the  Church,  and  which  longs  to  see  the  Church  edified 
and  warned  and  comforted,  cannot  fail  to  perceive  that 
all  such  efforts  can  attain  their  end  in  the  edification  of 
the  congregation  only  when  exerted,  not  according  to  in- 
dividual caprice,  but  under  the  guidance  of  fixed  regula- 
tions. And  this  implies  not  only  that  the  Church  dare  be 
built  on  no  other  foundation  than  that  already  laid, 
Christ,  and,  therefore,  that  no  other  Gospel  dare  be 
preached  than  that  proclaimed  by  Paul,  but  also  that  the 
various  forms  of  service  in  the  Church,  such  as  teaching, 
admonishing  and  ruling,  are  not  to  be  rendered  accord- 
ing to  individual  taste  and  judgment,  but  in  accordance 
with  proper  regulations.* 


*i  Cor.  14  =33;  13  :  i;  14  :i,  3;  3  : 11;  Eph.  2  :2o;  Gal.  i  :8f.; 
i  Cor.  14  : 40. 


174        THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

But  according  to  what  regulations?  This  must  be  de- 
termined by  the  love  which  seeks  to  serve  and  bless,  ac- 
cording to  the  peculiar  conditions  and  needs  at  any  time 
or  place.  Thus  the  apostle,  in  revisiting  the  congrega- 
tions which  he  had  previously  established,  was  always 
careful  to  see  that  "elders"  were  called  to  preside  over 
them.  From  the  conditions  which  he  observed  in  these 
congregations  the  clear  vision  of  his  love  perceived  that 
it  was  necessary  for  their  proper  edification  that  such  an 
ordinance  should  be  established.  Relying  upon  the  same 
brotherly  love  in  the  membership  of  the  congregations, 
he  expected  them  to  submit  willingly  to  many  regulations, 
the  necessity  for  which  might  not  be  apparent  in  their 
own  case,  but  which  prevailed  in  other  congregations.* 
He  who  would  lay  greater  stress  upon  such  incidental 
matters  than  upon  the  unity  and  advancement  of  the 
Church  has  not  yet  caught  a  glimpse  of  its  essential 
nature,  and  it  cannot  be  for  him  what  it  was  designed  to 
be  for  all  who  appreciate  its  mission  upon  earth. 

Thus  all  the  epistles  of  the  New  Testament  exalt  the 
Church,  although  not  in  such  eloquent  strain  as  Paul. 
None  the  less  is  this  the  case  in  the  years  following.  It 
is  to  be  observed,  however,  that  the  pious  delight  in  the 
Church  is  more  and  more  intermingled  with  the  natural 
pleasure  in  outward  magnificence.  There  was  an  at- 
tempt to  present  the  Church  in  all  the  beauty  and  power 
which  are  to  distinguish  it  in  the  eternal  consummation. 
Some  looked  for  an  association  without  unworthy  mem- 
bers, a  Church  glorious  in  its  blinding  purity.  If  the 
number  of  its  members  be  indeed  very  small — so  much 
the  more  flattering  is  it  to  belong  to  the  select  company. 
Others  pictured  to  themselves  a  Church  after  the  manner 


*  Acts  14  :  23 ;  i  Cor.  1 1  : 16. 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED   175 

of  an  earthly  kingdom,  so  magnificent  as  to  impress  even 
the  worldly-minded — if  possible,  swaying  its  scepter  over 
the  whole  world.  The  latter  conception  carried  the  day. 
All  emphasis  was  now  laid  upon  mere  outward  independ- 
ence and  compactness,  and,  therefore,  upon  external  ordi- 
nances and  a  uniform  constitution.  Regulations  which 
were  meant  to  be  only  auxiliary  means  for  the  edification 
of  the  congregation,  and  which  might,  therefore,  be 
changed  from  time  to  time  according  to  circumstances, 
are  now  regarded  as  necessary  to  salvation,  and,  there- 
fore, of  divine  obligation.  This  external,  organized  asso- 
ciation, which  can  be  clearly  and  definitely  known,  was 
supposed  to  be  the  true  Church,  outside  of  which  there 
is  no  salvation. 

It  was  Luther's  clear  eye  of  faith  which  first  discov- 
ered and  taught  what  the  Church  really  is,  namely,  the 
congregation  of  believers  upon  the  whole  earth,  whose 
boundaries  no  man  can  mark  off  because  with  it  are 
always  united  some  who  are  not  truly  members  of  Christ, 
but  which  is,  nevertheless,  a  reality,  recognizable  by  the 
Word  and  sacraments  of  the  Lord,  because  through  their 
administration  the  life  of  the  believing  congregation  is 
manifested  and  new  believers  are  born.  From  Luther, 
too,  we  have  learned  again  to  estimate  aright  the  value 
of  external  ordinances  in  the  Church.  The  Christian, 
secure  in  his  faith,  knows  that  all  things  of  this  kind  do 
not  belong  to  the  essence  of  the  Church,  that  he  is  in 
faith  "a  free  Lord  over  all  such  things."  But  when  he 
looks  upon  them  with  the  eye  of  love — and  where  there 
is  no  such  love  there  is  in  reality  no  true  faith — when 
he  longs  for  the  inward  and  outward  advancement  of  the 
Church,  then  he  will  honor  such  ordinances  as  the  neces- 
sary condition  for  the  promotion  of  her  prosperity  and 
subject  himself  to  them  as  "a  willing  servant  of  all 


176   THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

things,"  even  though  he  may  not  himself  stand  in  need 
of  them.  It  follows  that,  even  though  these  ordinances 
may  have  varied  greatly  in  different  times  and  places, 
this  does  not  destroy  the  unity  of  the  true  Church.  To 
this  it  is  sufficient,  says  the  Augsburg  Confession,  to 
agree  in  regard  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Gospel  and  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  sacraments,  and  it  is  not  necessary 
that  the  traditional  customs  and  ceremonies  established 
by  men  be  observed.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  since  these 
have  under  the  guidance  of  God  become  historically 
established,  the  Christian  who  loves  the  Church  respects 
them,  always  conscious,  however,  of  their  human  origin, 
and,  therefore,  never  considering  their  precise  form  as 
obligatory,  but  always  ready  and  willing  to  adopt  a  more 
perfect  regulation  if  God  should  point  out  such  or  per- 
mit it  to  be  established. 

The  new  truth  as  to  the  real  nature  of  the  Church  dis- 
covered by  Luther  made  it  possible  to  understand  aright 
the  declaration  of  the  most  ancient  Creed  upon  this  point. 
In  the  oldest  form  of  this  symbol  known  to  us,  we  read 
only  the  words:  "a  holy  Church."  This  sane  tarn  eccle- 
siam  was  enlarged  by  the  two  additions,  catholicans  and 
sanctorum  communionem  (translated  by  Luther,  "the 
congregation  of  the  saints").  These  additions  first  meet 
us  in  the  text  about  A.D.  450  and  in  Southern  Gaul.  We 
do  not  know  when,  nor  by  whom,  nor  from  what  source, 
they  were  inserted.  But  in  certain  confessions  older  than 
the  Apostles'  Creed  the  words  appear.  In  that  of  Jeru- 
salem, the  Church  is  designated  as  "catholic,"  and  in  that 
of  the  bishop  of  Nicetas  of  Remesiana  (about  A.D.  400) 
it  is  described  as  sanctorum  communio.  Inasmuch  as 
South  Gaul  was  closely  associated  with  the  Orient,  we 
may  infer  that  the  additional  words  were  already,  at  the 
time  of  their  adoption  into  the  Creed,  a  common  pos- 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED        177 

session  of  the  more  ancient  Church  at  large.  But  how 
are  we  to  understand  them? 

It  is  maintained  that  we  dare  attach  to  the  separate 
parts  of  the  Creed  no  other  sense  than  that  in  which  they 
were  understood  at  the  time  when  they  were  adopted. 
Otherwise,  "it  will  be  explained  in  a  way  contrary  to  the 
original  sense,  and  thus  misinterpreted."  It  is  certainly 
true  that  a  scientific  investigation  of  this  memorial  of 
ancient  times  requires  an  answer  to  the  question:  What 
was  understood  by  it  in  those  days  ?  But  when  it  comes 
to  be  the  question  whether  we  can  yet  employ  this  sym- 
bol as  our  confession  of  faith,  then  it  is  only  necessary  to 
determine  whether  the  separate  clauses,  rightly  under- 
stood, really  express  the  true  faith.  Those  who  framed 
this  confession  were  not  attempting  to  present  their  own 
subjective  opinions,  but  "the  faith  of  the  apostles,"  and 
if  they  had  at  any  time  discovered  that  they  understood 
any  clause  differently  from  the  apostles,  they  would  not 
have  stricken  out  the  clause,  but  only  surrendered  their 
improper  understanding  of  it.  Thus,  we  can  use  the 
clause,  "I  believe  in  a  holy  Church,"  as  the  expression  of 
our  faith,  even  though  at  the  time  when  the  Creed  was 
formed  the  idea  of  an  external,  hierarchically  organized 
institution  may  have  been  already  in  the  minds  of  the 
authors ;  and  so  with  other  portions.  Our  acceptance  of 
the  term  "catholic,"  as  a  designation  of  the  Church,  does 
thus  not  depend  upon  the  understanding  of  that  term 
in  South  Gaul  in  the  fifth  century.  On  the  contrary,  the 
question  for  us  is :  What  did  the  early  Christians  origin- 
ally mean  to  express  by  the  word? 

The  Church  was  first  called  "catholic"  by  Ignatius  of 

Antioch  (fA.D.  no).     He  means  thereby  to  describe  it 

as  the  association  embracing  all  believers,  however  widely 

scattered,  or,  in  other  words,  the  Church  at  large.    Poly- 

12 


178        THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

carp  of  Smyrna  (fA.D.  155)  had  the  same  conception 
of  the  word.*  But  since  at  a  later  day  the  term  was 
employed  as  a  designation  of  the  orthodox,  external 
ecclesiastical  communion,  with  a  distinct  and  definite 
constitution,  as  is  so  often  understood  even  in  our  day, 
Luther,  in  his  German  catechism,  substituted  for  it  the 
word  "Christian."  He  thus  reproduced  the  exact  original 
meaning  of  the  term.  Wherever  Christians  are  to  be 
found,  so  far  extends  the  Church. 

It  is  not  so  clear  what  was  originally  meant  by  the 
phrase,  "sanctorum  communionem."  In  the  African 
Church,  about  the  year  A.D.  400,  and  by  the  great 
Augustine,f  it  was  used  as  equivalent  to  the  association, 
or  fellowship,  of  true  saints,  the  believing  Christians,  and 
was,  therefore,  synonymous  with  "the  Church  Universal." 
So  also  by  Nicetas  of  Remesiana,  who  lived  at  about  the 
same  time.  Not  essentially  different  was  the  view  of 
Faustus  of  Reji  (about  sixty  years  later),  who  is  the  first 
author  known  to  us  to  testify  distinctly  that  the  words 
in  question  had  been  inserted  in  the  Creed,  and  that  in 
the  circle  of  his  acquaintance  it  had  never  been  known 
in  any  other  form.J  Luther  returned  to  Augustine's  con- 


*  Ignatius,  ad  Smyrn.  8  : 2.  Mart.  Polyc.  8 ;  compare  5  and  9. 
In  the  initial  greeting  and  in  chapter  16  the  word  has  the  same 
meaning.  When,  in  the  latter1  passage,  it  is  said  that  Polycarp 
is  the  bishop  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  Smyrna,  it  is  not  meant 
to  distinguish  this  as  the  orthodox  Church  from  heretical 
Churches,  but  that  the  general  Church,  which  is  represented  also 
in  Smyrna,  has  there  Polycarp  as  its  bishop, — just  as  Paul  de- 
scribes by  the  one  word,  "church,"  a  separate  congregation,  or 
even  a  coherent  part  of  a  separate  congregation,  and  at  other 
times  the  whole  body  of  Christian  believers. 

t  Augustine.     Sermo.  52  :6  (Bass.  V.  369). 

JWhen  Faustus  uses  the  thought  of  our  fellowship  with  the 
saints  in  glory  to  refute  those  "who  maintained  that  we  dare 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED        179 

ception  of  the  phrase,  and  held  that  it  is  "nothing  else 
than  a  gloss,  or  interpretation,  by  which  it  'was  sought 
to  indicate  what  the  Christian  Church  is."  He  un- 
derstood, therefore,  the  ''sanctorum  communio"  as  the 
union  of  the  saints,  the  concrete  association  of  believers. 
He  objected  to  the  translation,  then  already  widely  preva- 
lent, "communion  (Gemeinschaft)  of  saints,"  that  "no 
German  language  speaks  or  understands  thus."  To  speak 
in  real  German,  it  ought  to  be,  a  congregation  of  the 
saints,  i.e.,  a  congregation  in  which  are  none  but  saints, 
or,  more  clearly,  a  holy  congregation."  He,  therefore, 
translates  it:  "The  congregation  of  the  saints." 

From  this  it  is  evident  that  the  Church  of  Luther  does 
not  understand  these  two  words  of  the  Creed  in  pre- 
cisely the  same  sense  as  the  most  ancient  commentator 
known  to  us.  And  we  do  not  even  know  how  the  one 
who  placed  them  in  the  Creed  himself  understood  them. 


not  hold  in  honor  the  ashes  of  the  saints  and  friends  of  God," 
we  need  not  infer  that  he  includes  under  the  term  "saints,"  with 
whom  we  stand  in  fellowship,  only  the  saints  in  the  narrower 
Roman  Catholic  sense.  He  may,  like  Nicetas,  have  meant  all 
the  "glorified  righteous"  (Heb.  12  123),  and  from  the  fact  that 
we  are  most  intimately  associated  with  them  drawn  the  con- 
clusion that  we  may  hold  their  ashes,  especially  those  of  the 
"blessed  martyrs,"  in  honor  and  "celebrate  their  memory."  He 
mentions  the  martyrs  only  because  their  remains  were  actually 
venerated.  If  he,  when  speaking  of  the  "saints,"  includes  a  wider 
circle  than  that  of  the  martyrs,  he  may  also  have  had  in  mind 
a  wider  circle  than  that  of  the  ceremonially  venerated  saints  (in 
the  narrow  sense  of  the  word).  The  view  that  the  word  "sancto- 
rum" was  originally  conceived  as  a  neuter,  meaning  thus  fellow- 
ship in  the  sacred  things  of  the  Church,  such  as  the  sacraments, 
needs  no  refutation.  Compare  Herzog-Hauck  Realencyclopsedia, 
6,  505,  soff.  We  do  not  meet  this  idea  until  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury, doubtless  then  arising  from  a  misunderstanding  of  older 
explanations  of  the  symbol. 


180   THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

\ 
Taking  them  as  they  stand,  there  would  be  nothing  in 

the  way  of  our  thinking,  with  Nicetas,  of  the  saints  who 
have  preceded  us  into  the  life  beyond.  Such  is  certainly 
our  belief.  "Whether  we  live  or  die,  we  are  the  Lord's" ; 
hence,  living  or  departed,  believers  are  the  Lord's,  and  all 
are  therefore  one.  But  since  we  also  know  that  the 
words  were  taken  by  an  Augustine  as  synonymous  with 
the  true  Church  on  earth,  there  is  nothing  whatever  to 
hinder  us  from  thus,  with  Luther,  understanding  them. 

When,  therefore,  we,  as  evangelical  Christians,  con- 
fess our  faith  in  "a  holy  Christian  Church,  the  congrega- 
tion of  the  saints,"  we  have  in  mind,  and  with  deep  in- 
ward joy,  the  fact  that  there  is  in  this  sinful,  distracted, 
lost  world  a  Church  of  God, — holy,  because  consisting  of 
men  who  have  been  sanctified  by  faith  in  Jesus  Christ, — 
Christian,  because  it  is  everywhere  where  Christ  is  appre- 
hended in  faith,  though  it  be  in  great  weakness ;  not  only 
in  the  narrower  circle  of  that  ecclesiastical  organization 
with  which  we  are  ourselves  connected;  not  only  where 
our  dim  eyes  think  that  they  discern  true  believers,  but 
even  where  we  can  discern  manifold  imperfections, — a 
congregation  of  the  believers,  belonging  together  despite 
all  diversities  of  a  natural  or  spiritual  kind,  a  fellowship 
in  which  each  one  influences  the  others  and  seeks  their 
welfare,  even  when  bitter  strife  seems  to  prevail  among 
them. 

With  joy  and  pride  I  so  confess.  For  I  can,  with 
Luther,  lifting  up  my  head  with  joyous  confidence,  add : 
"And  I  also  am  a  part  and  member  of  the  same,  a  partici- 
pant and  joint  owner  of  all  the  good  it  possesses,  brought 
to  it  and  incorporated  into  it  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  in  that 
I  have  heard  and  continue  to  hear  the  Word  of  God, 
which  is  the  means  of  entrance.  For  formerly,  before  we 
had  attained  to  this,  we  were  entirely  the  devil's  own." 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED   181 

But  how  can  we  account  for  the  fact  that  so  many 
Christians  in  our  day  can  no  longer  thus  confess  with  joy 
and  pride  ?  We  may  note  three  principal  reasons : 

First.  Many  Christians  do  not  know  at  all  what  they 
are  saying  when  they  speak  of  the  Church.  When  they 
hear  the  word,  they  think  only  of  ecclesiastical  boards — 
"brutal  consistories,"  as  they  were  called  in  the  days  of 
Rationalism — and  of  men  entrusted  with  the  preaching 
office,  of  churchly  ordinances  and  regulations.  It  would 
be  otherwise  incomprehensible  how  "the  Church"  and 
"the  associations"  (Gemeinschaften)  are  not  seldom 
spoken  of  as  opponents,  or  rivals.  If  anyone  should  be 
convinced  that  the  Church  of  God  is  not  being  properly 
or  sufficiently  edified  in  the  external  ecclesiastical  body 
to  which  he  belongs,  and  that  it  is,  therefore,  necessary 
for  him  to  strike  out  upon  some  new  path — perhaps  to 
organize  an  "association"  of  those  having  similar  con- 
victions, we  may  hold  that  he  is  entirely  mistaken,  but 
his  argument  would  at  least  have  some  reasonable  mean- 
ing. But  to  place  "church"  and  "association"  even  side  by 
side,  is  simple  nonsense,  unless  one  is  prepared  to  deny 
to  all  friends  of  the  "association"  membership  in  the 
Church,  and  thus  consign  them  to  the  "kingdom  of  the 
devil."  Those  who  speak  in  this  foolish  way  understand 
by  "the  Church"  some  one  of  the  historical  and  organized 
ecclesiastical  bodies.  Can  they  not  perceive  the  relation 
in  which  these  bodies  stand  to  the  Church  in  which  we 
believe?  They  are  the  circles  within  which  this  Church  is 
present,  commingled  indeed  with  some  who  do  not  truly 
belong  to  her.  But  only  because  they  contain  within 
them  this  Church,  i.e.,  true  believers,  can  we  call  them 
churches,  as  we  call  a  field  in  which  wheat  is  growing 
a  wheat  field,  although  there  may  also  be  many  weeds 
in  it.  Hence  I  must  love  and  honor  this  external  ecclesi- 


182   THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

astical  body  and  seek  to  promote  its  welfare,  because  it 
contains  the  Church  of  the  Lord  just  as  certainly  as 
God's  Word,  which  is  proclaimed  only  by  the  "congrega- 
tion of  the  believers"  and  which  alone  makes  new  be- 
lievers, is  heard  within  it.  And  if  I  think  that  I  have  dis- 
covered new  ways  which  will  lead  to  a  more  effectual  use 
of  the  Word,  I  should,  from  love  to  the  Church,  and 
therefore  from  love  to  the  external  ecclesiastical  body 
in  which  the  Church  is  found,  make  every  effort  to  have 
these  ways  thoroughly  considered,  and,  if  found  good, 
adopted.  If  this  comes  to  pass,  then  an  addition  will  be 
thus  made  to  the  organization  of  the  Church.  But  just 
as  certainly  as  the  Church  cannot  advance  and  flourish 
without  an  organization  and  external  regulations,  so  truly 
can  no  arrangements  and  regulations  made  by  man  claim 
to  be  alone  and  forever  valid.  But  he  condemns  himself 
who  condemns  the  ecclesiastical  body  on  account  of  its 
regulations  and  yet  declares  that  some  other  regulations 
are  wholesome  and  even  necessary.  And  he  who  pro- 
fesses to  love  the  Church,  but  does  not  love  but  despises 
and  slanders  the  external  ecclesiastical  body  within  which 
the  Church  is  present  and  with  which  God  has  in  His 
providence  connected  it,  loves  something  else  than  the 
Church  of  the  Lord.  But  why  should  he  not  rather  love 
the  Church? 

Secondly.  Our  age  suffers  from  an  inordinate  subjec- 
tivism. Each  man  wishes,  even  in  the  sphere  of  reli- 
gion, to  be  an  absolutely  independent  personality — not 
to  become,  but  to  be  such.  Hence  he  looks  upon  his  whole 
religious  equipment  as  a  self-earned  possession.  But  the 
great  Goethe,  who  had  few  equals  as  an  independent 
spirit,  declared  that  the  longer  he  lived  the  more  clearly 
he  realized  how  few  of  his  opinions  had  been  independ- 
ently formed,  and  how  many  were  merely  inherited.  It 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED   183 

is  the  pride  of  the  subjectivist  that  cannot  perceive  this 
to  be  the  case  in  the  realm  of  our  religious  knowledge. 
In  reality,  we  have  received  the  best  that  we  have  in  the 
sphere  of  faith  and  morality  through  the  Church,  through 
the  "congregation  of  the  believing,"  which  has  by  the 
labor  of  centuries  prepared  it  for  us  and  then  transmitted 
it  to  us.  All  that  we  have  received  from  the  words  and 
deeds  of  men  to  help  us  in  securing  our  eternal  salvation, 
they  could  not  have  possessed  or  imparted  if  there  had 
been  no  congregation  of  saints — no  Church.  "The 
Church,"  says  Luther,  in  the  most  genuine  humility,  "is 
the  mother  of  us  all,"  who  gave  us  birth  from  her  womb 
and  nourished  us  with  her  milk.  It  is  shameful  ingrati- 
tude to  close  the  eyes  to  this  fact,  and  even  to  slander  the 
Church  from  which  we  have  received  the  best  that  we 
have,  as  though  she  had  nothing  and  could  be  enriched 
only  by  us.  This  ingratitude,  born  of  a  deluded  sub- 
jectivism, makes  it  impossible  for  multitudes  to  love  and 
honor  the  Church  as  she  deserves. 

Thirdly.  This  disposition  to  stand  alone  upon  one's 
own  feet,  and  have  only  one's  self  to  thank  for  everything, 
prevents  us  also  from  realizing  and  receiving  the  new 
blessings  which  we  might  receive  in  and  from  the  Church. 
We  think  of  ourselves  as  the  great  oak,  standing  in  self- 
conscious  isolation  upon  the  top  of  the  mountain,  defying 
all  storms  and  in  need  of  neither  prop  nor  shield.  Not 
such  was  the  mighty  Luther.  To  him,  the  consciousness 
that  he  was  not  standing  alone  with  his  faith  in  a  world 
alienated  from  God  seemed  so  necessary  that  he  felt  com- 
pelled to  remind  himself  again  and  again  of  the  fact 
that  throughout  all  the  centuries,  even  in  the  most  barren 
ages,  there  existed  a  company  of  those  who,  like  him- 
self, believed  on  Jesus  Christ.  This  Luther,  whom  we  re- 
gard as  so  rich  in  spiritual  endowment,  and  who  made 


184        THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

so  many  others  rich,  could  so  little  do  without  the  en- 
couragement and  help  of  other  Christians  that  he  took 
refuge  again  and  again  to  the  "congregation  of  saints." 
To  the  writings  which  they  had  given  to  the  Church  he 
turned  when  he  longed  for  fresh  revelations  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.  From  the  members  of  the  Church  living  about 
him  he  humbly  drew  comfort  and  strength  when  his  soul 
was  depressed  and  his  courage  failing.  Thus  it  was  with 
the  man  from  whom  alone  we  have  learned  to  place  a 
true  value  upon  subjectivism.  But  with  him  it  was 
genuine. 

Yet  who  knows  but  that,  if  again  such  times  as  those  in 
the  midst  of  which  Luther  lived  should  come — times 
when  believers  shall  realize  more  clearly  than  to-day  the 
immeasurable  gulf  between  them  and  others,  and  in  con- 
sequence feel  themselves  orphaned  and  alone — times  when 
the  enmity  of  the  world  against  them  shall  not  shrink 
from  the  most  brutal  measures  of  persecution — believers 
may  again  fervently  long  for  just  that  which  the  Church 
can  be  to  us  and  give  to  us,  and,  finding  this  in  her,  grate- 
fully confess:  I  believe  in  a  holy  Christian  Church,  the 
congregation  of  saints. 


CHAPTER  XII 
The  Forgiveness  of  Sins 

BY  DR.  E.  WEBER 

PROFESSOR  OF  SYSTEMATIC  AND  HISTORICAL  THEOLOGY  AT  BONN 

The  article  upon  the  forgiveness  of  sins  holds  a  unique 
position  in  the  Creed  as  a  whole.  It  is  a  small  member 
and  is  almost  unobserved  as  we  repeat  the  confession. 
And  history  shows  that  it  may  be  passed  over  very  lightly. 
But  when  it  is  passed  over  lightly,  or  even  regarded  as 
merely  a  single  article  among  others  of  the  series,  the 
Creed  is  not  what  it  should  be,  not  an  evangelical  confes- 
sion of  faith,  not  a  confession  of  the  faith  which  has  by 
means  of  the  testimony  of  the  apostles  found  the  Father 
in  Christ  the  Crucified.  The  Reformation  has  pointed 
out  to  us  the  way  to  an  evangelical  understanding  of  the 
Creed,  having  taught  us  to  read  everything  in  the  light 
of  this  article.  It  is  for  evangelical  faith  the  burning- 
point  of  the  Creed.  "Therefore,  it  is  not  enough  that  I 
know  or  believe  that  Christ  was  born,  suffered,  and  rose 
again,  unless  we  also  believe  this  article,  which  is  the 
final  cause  of  these  historical  events:  I  believe  that  my 
sins  are  forgiven.  To  this  article  must  all  the  rest  be 
referred,  namely,  that  for  Christ's  sake,  and  not  for  the 
sake  of  our  merits,  our  sin  is  forgiven"  (Apol.  2  rS1)- 
We  may  almost  fear  to  approach  this  article  with  our 
comments,  with  our  theological  reflections  and  attempted 
elucidation.  It  leads  us  into  the  holy  of  holies.  We  can- 
not speak  of  the  forgiveness  of  sins  in  the  spirit  of  the 

185 


186        THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

faith  which  found  utterance  in  the  Reformation  and  in 
the  Creed  without  realizing  that  with  the  forgiveness  of 
sins  the  reality  of  God  enters  into  our  life.  Where  the 
forgiveness  of  sins  is  a  living  reality,  there  is  God.  We 
must,  therefore,  at  the  outset  most  humbly  realize  how 
exalted  is  the  reality  which  the  Creed  confesses  as  com- 
pared with  our  poor  words  which  seek  to  comprehend 
and  explain  it.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  the  exalting 
certainty  of  faith,  assuring  it  of  the  grace  of  its  God,  that 
it  may  and  must  make  open  confession  of  that  which  it 
believes.  Our  speech  may  never  be  more  than  a  stammer- 
ing when  contrasted  with  the  grandeur  of  that  of  which 
we  speak,  but  we  may  and  should  speak,  because  God  has 
spoken.  And  His  Word,  which  He  speaks  to  the  hearts 
of  men  to-day  as  He  did  thousands  of  years  ago,  which 
He  has  proclaimed  to  the  whole  world  in  giving  to  it 
His  Son,  the  living  Word,  in  whom  is  revealed  His  grace 
and,  with  it,  life — this  Word  is :  Forgiveness  of  sins. 

But  is  the  forgiveness  of  sins  really  such  an  important 
thing?  Is  there  not,  perhaps,  in  our  use  of  the  phrase 
something  greatly  overstrained?  Is  it  not  a  morbid 
type  of  piety,  which  is  always  concerned  only  for  the 
forgiveness  of  sins?  Is  it  not  a  healthy  tendency  of  our 
rigorous  modern  piety  which  protests  against  this  and 
seeks  to  promote  a  strong,  "manly,"  vitalized  Christian- 
ity? Is  there  not  in  the  preaching  of  the  forgiveness  of 
sins  something  paralyzing,  unnerving,  devitalizing — 
something  untrue  and,  in  the  long  run,  positively  tending 
to  superficiality?  Is  not  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  after 
all,  only  one  thought,  one  blessing  of  the  Gospel?  Is  it 
not  really  but  the  condition  for  the  bestowal  of  the  divine 
blessings,  instead  of  the  central  blessing  itself?  Even 
theologians  who  are  with  positive  conviction  attached  to 
the  Gospel  as  proclaimed  by  the  apostles  and  reformers 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED        187 

often  regard  the  inclusion  of  the  whole  Gospel  in  the 
forgiveness  of  sins  as  a  one-sided  theory.  They  appeal, 
in  support  of  their  contention,  to  the  testimony  borne 
by  the  apostles  and  reformers  and  the  wide  range  of 
topics  which  it  covers.  In  addition  to  the  grace  of  the 
forgiveness  of  sins,  we  here  find  especially  the  blessing 
of  the  new  life  depicted  in  many  and  varied  aspects.  We 
can,  therefore,  scarcely  avoid  regarding  it  as  a  defect  of 
the  Creed  that  it  mentions,  in  addition  to  the  forgiveness 
of  sins  as  a  blessing  of  the  Gospel,  only  eternal  life,  and 
that,  by  placing  this  after  the  resurrection,  it  seems  to 
represent  it  as  being  essentially  only  the  life  of  the  future. 
We  would  not  ignore  the  danger  of  a  one-sided  presenta- 
tion of  the  Gospel,  and  hence  of  the  Christian  life,  by  the 
preaching  of  the  forgiveness  of  sins.  The  sedative  as- 
pects of  the  faith  may  thereby  acquire  a  one-sided  prom- 
inence. The  more  they  are  emphasized,  the  more  must 
the  preaching  of  forgiveness,  which  aims  to  vanquish 
sin,  to  make  holy  love  the  ruling  impulse  in  human  life, 
but  not  obliterate  the  real  character  of  sin  as  sin,  as  ab- 
normal and  contrary  to  nature,  be  in  danger  of  diversion 
from  the  path  of  truthfulness.  But  where  the  preach- 
ing of  forgiveness  as  the  principal  thing  awakens  only  the 
emotional  nature  without  moving  the  will,  where  it  be- 
comes merely  a  means  of  quieting  fears  in  view  of  the 
sin  which  is  unavoidable,  there  the  forgiveness  of  sins  is 
not  understood  in  its  real  character.  If  we  only  accept 
it  as  the  Gospel  offers  it,  it  is  actually  the  Gospel  itself. 
It  is  this  as  truly  as  it  is  the  life-question  for  man,  and, 
at  the  same  time,  in  its  historical  manifestation,  presents 
the  divine  response  to  this  question  which  furnishes  the 
solution  of  the  life-problem. 

I.  The  forgiveness  of  sins  is  certainly  not  a  matter 
of  course.     It  is  the  miracle  of  divine  grace  by  which 


188    THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

God  draws  men  up  to  Himself,  and  it,  therefore,  is  "sal- 
vation." But  in  order  that  it  may  be  thus  understood 
and  experienced,  it  must  have  first  been  apprehended  as 
the  great  life-question.  As  such,  it  dominated  the  edu- 
cational appointments  of  the  Old  Testament.  The  pre- 
scribed sacrifices  were  designed  to  keep  it  alive  in  the 
hearts  of,  the  people  through  rites  and  symbols.  To  the 
holy  God  the  sinner  dare  not  draw  near  as  he  is.  Only 
divine  grace  can  open  to  him  the  way,  as  it  sets  before 
the  soul  at  the  same  time  the  holiness  of  God.  In  the 
hard  shell  of  the  system  of  worship  lay  half  concealed  and 
half  revealed  the  mystery  in  which  the  backward  glance 
recognizes  the  preparation  for  the  future  which  God  has 
in  view !  It  is  the  task  of  personal  piety  to  concern  itself 
ever  more  and  more  with  the  great  life-question.  God 
has  implanted  it  in  the  hearts  of  all  men,  who  are  far 
from  Him,  but  whom  He  would  have  draw  near  to 
Him.  To  it  bears  testimony,  even  in  its  wildest  aberra- 
tions, the  belief  of  the  heathen  in  expiation  and  sacrifice. 
Though  the  conception  of  God  be  ever  so  dim  and  attenu- 
ated, in  their  impulse  to  seek  expiation  and  to  appease 
the  divinity  we  may  yet  trace  the  deep-seated,  secret 
working  of  the  life-question,  which  demands  an  answer. 
Thus  the  sacrifices,  prompted  by  fear  of  the  gods,  the 
expressions  of  a  wild  longing  for  expiation  and  freedom 
from  guilt,  such  as  we  find  also  in  the  mystery-religions 
of  the  New  Testament  age,  receive  their  thrilling  signifi- 
cance. But  the  unique  character  of  the  religion  of  Israel 
is  to  be  seen  especially  in  the  fact  that  the  forgiveness 
of  sins  here,  and  that  in  a  peculiar  way,  becomes  the  life- 
question.  If  we  may,  as  Koeberle's  splendid  work  has 
shown,  consider  the  Old  Testament  religious  development 
under  the  title,  Sin  and  Grace,  this  simply  means  that 
that  development  was  dominated  by  the  question  of  the 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED        189 

forgiveness  of  sin.  Where  this  question  has  laid  deep 
hold  upon  the  heart,  it  conducts  man  into  the  presence 
of  the  living  God;  but  it  also,  pointing  upward  to  this 
same  God  who  by  His  revelation  forces  it  upon  the  con- 
science, carries  its  own  answer  with  it  in  assured  anticipa- 
tion. Belief  in  the  forgiveness  of  sins  becomes  in  the 
religion  of  revelation  the  very  heart  of  the  knowledge 
of  God.  "Keeping  lovingkindness  for  thousands,  for- 
giving iniquity  and  transgression  and  sin;  and  that  will 
by  no  means  clear  the  guilty."  (Ex.  34  :  7.)  "Who  for- 
giveth  (forgave)  all  thine  iniquities  .  .  .  who  crowneth 
thee  with  lovingkindness  and  tender  mercies."  (Ps.  103  : 
3f.)  "But  there  is  forgiveness  with  thee,  that  thou 
mayest  be  feared."  (Ps.  130  :4.)  Similarly,  we  may 
trace  back  the  conception  of  the  forgiveness  of  sins  to 
the  very  heart  of  the  prophetic  promises.  It  is  foretold 
that  men  shall  have  the  forgiveness  of  their  sins;  and 
this  means  that  they  shall  have  salvation,  that  they  shall 
know  God,  and  that  He  will  truly  be  the  God  of  His 
people.  This  is  the  "new  covenant."  (Jer.  31  :33f.) 
"And  the  inhabitants  shall  not  say,  I  am  sick :  the  people 
that  dwell  therein  shall  be  forgiven  their  iniquity."  (Isa. 
33  : 24.)*  But,  with  all  present  assurance,  there  yet  ever 
remains  an  outlook  for  the  future.  Faith  never  ceases 
to  be  a  hopeful  and  expectant  faith.  The  forgiveness  of 
sins  still  remains  the  great  life-question.  It  carries  with 
it  an  anticipation  of  the  answer,  but  not  yet  the  full 
reality  of  the  divine  solution  of  the  problem.  The  de- 
velopment of  Jewish  piety  shows  this  question  influential 
in  the  profoundest  features  of  the  religious  life.  Even 
although  it  may  become  to  a  large  extent  superficial  and 


*  Compare  also :   Isa.  i  :  18 ;  43  :  25 ;  44  : 22 ;  Jer.  33  : 8 ;  Micah 
7  :  18 ;  Zech.  3:9;  13  :  i ;  Dan.  9  : 24. 


190   THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

be  smothered  under  Pharisaic  legal  righteousness,  Greek- 
Jewish  Gnosticism,  or  (not  the  least)  the  vain  conceit 
of  the  chosen  nation,  we  are  not  without  impressive  evi- 
dence how  it  maintained  its  hold  upon  the  hearts  of  the 
people.* 

And  God  sees  to  it  that  this  hope  does  not  perish.  He 
imparts  new  life  to  it  by  giving  the  answer.  That  answer 
is  Jesus  Christ.  John  the  Baptist  becomes  the  herald 
of  His  advent  by  preaching  repentance.  This  means  that, 
by  fixing  the  gaze  upon  the  Judge,  he  drives  anew  the 
problem  of  forgiveness  deep  into  the  consciences  of 
his  hearers.  He  assures  them  that  those  who  accept  his 
stronger  Successor  as  the  solution  and  fulfillment  of  the 
life-problem  shall  be  enabled  to  grasp  its  full  signifi- 
cance. We  have  a  number  of  declarations  from  the  lips 
of  Jesus  giving  assurance  of  the  forgiveness  of  sins. 
(Mark  2:5;  Luke  7  '.47.)  We  know  that  at  the  ap- 
proach of  His  death,  He  established  the  new  divine  ordi- 
nance in  which  the  forgiveness  of  sins  is  the  controlling 
thought.  But  we  are  in  His  case  not  dependent  upon 
single  utterances.  His  Gospel,  as  a  whole,  is  the  for- 
giveness of  sins — the  sin-forgiving  grace  of  God.  The 
modern  expounder  of  religious  history  who  regards  the 
primitive  Church  as  already  immersed  in  mythological 
ideas  and  who  finds  in  Paul  an  acute  "orientalizing"  of 
the  Gospel  is  compelled  to  see  the  Gospel  of  Christ 
shining  through  all  the  myths  and  legends,  all  the  ancient 
formal  piety,  as  the  Gospel  of  the  forgiveness  of  sins.f 

The  preaching  of  Jesus  is  comprised  in  the  thought  of 
the  forgiveness  of  sins.  He  proclaims  the  divine  Judge 


*  Compare  Dan.  9  and  Ezra  3. 

t  Compare   Bousset,   Kyrios   Christo,   1913,  PP-   136,    i?4>   222, 
364- 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED        191 

and  His  holy  will,  which  requires  genuine  earnestness 
and  unconditional  determination  in  the  conflict  with  sin 
and  in  obedience  to  His  commandments.  He  Himself 
bows  beneath  the  divine  demands  and  judgment.  But 
He,  at  the  same  time,  announces  the  divine  Judge  as  the 
God  who  fulfills  His  promises,  the  loving  Father.  He 
teaches  that  in  the  words  and  works  of  the  Son  faith 
may  recognize  the  merciful  purpose  of  God  to  save  the 
sinner.  Thus  the  preaching  of  John  the  Baptist  is  adopted 
and  carried  farther,  and  thus  its  profound  truthfulness 
is  vindicated.  The  thought  of  forgiveness  enables  us  to 
understand  the  preaching  of  repentance.  The  God  who 
is  the  Judge  and  who  announces  His  grace,  this  is  the  God 
who  forgives  our  sins.  He  manifests  His  grace  by  send- 
ing the  call  to  repentance  before  the  terrible  "day  of 
the  Lord,"  the  revelation  of  His  wrath,  shall  come.  He 
who  bows  beneath  the  summons  in  penitent  faith  catches 
a  glimpse  of  the  fulfillment  of  the  promise.  In  this  way 
we  may  perceive  the  unity  of  the  preaching  of  Jesus. 
But  this  grace,  which  places  the  sinner  before  the  throne 
of  judgment  in  order  to  reveal  to  him  its  own  fullness 
of  blessing,  is  sin-forgiving  grace,  or  the  grace  of  the 
holy  God.*  Hence,  when  Jesus  promises  the  forgiveness 
of  sins,  we  recognize  it  as  only  the  personal  appropriation 
of  His  gospel. 

But  this  personal    appropriation  leads  us  still  farther. 


*It  will  not  be  urged  in  objection  to  this  statement  of  the 
substance  of  the  preaching  of  Jesus  that  He  Himself  does  not 
use  the  word  "grace."  The  word  indeed  is  missing.  We  em- 
brace in  the  term  the  substance,  the  reality,  of  which  we  are 
here  speaking.  The  apostolic  delineation  of  the  person  of  Jesus 
(compare  John  i  :  14,  17)  has  given  us  the  word.  The  only 
question  is  whether  the  substance  and  reality  are  here.  And  this 
we  surely  may  confidently  claim. 


192        THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

Jesus  not  only  bears  testimony  to  the  gracious,  sin- 
forgiving  will  of  God  in  His  sermons  and  awakens  faith 
by  His  saving  acts,  but  He  brings  the  forgiveness  of 
sins  in  His  person.  This  may  be  plainly  seen  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  "woman  who  was  a  sinner."  She  has  the  for- 
giveness of  her  sins  before  the  Lord  expressly  promises 
it  to  her.  Her  love  proves  this.  How  can  she  be  sure 
of  her  forgiveness?  She  apprehends  it  in  the  person  of 
the  Lord.  The  inexorable  preacher  of  repentance,  who 
remorselessly  tears  the  mask  from  the  face  of  hyprocrisy 
and  yet  cultivates  the  society  of  publicans  and  sinners, 
the  prophet  of  the  holy  will  of  God,  the  Judge  who  yet 
seeks  the  lost — is  Himself  the  offer  of  forgiveness  for 
the  "lost,"  whose  hearts  are  yet  open  for  the  entrance  of 
such  love.  In  Him  the  sinner-seeking,  i.e.,  forgiving, 
grace  of  God  enters  into  their  life.  Thus  Jesus  has  Him- 
self pictured  His  association  with  such,  in  contrast  with 
the  Pharisaic  contempt,  in  the  parable  of  the  Lost  Son, 
which  is  really  the  Gospel  in  the  Gospel.  The  third 
evangelist  has  especially  dwelt  upon  this  feature  of  the 
sinner-seeking  love  in  his  portrayal  of  Jesus  and  His 
preaching,  as  in  the  case  of  Zacchaeus.  But  it  is  really 
a  fundamental  feature.  According  to  Mark  (2  :  17), 
Jesus  announces  that  He  knows  that  He  has  been  sent 
to  the  sick  and  sinful,  and  not  to  the  healthy  and  right- 
eous. The  parable  of  the  Pharisee  and  the  publican 
(Luke  18  :  Qff.)  shows  us  how  man  should  approach  God. 
It  accords  fully  with  the  ideal  of  the  piety  of  the  oppressed 
and  heavy-laden  which  pervades  the  earlier  portion  of 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  To  bring  men  to  this  attitude 
toward  God  is  the  aim  of  the  preaching  of  judgment. 
To  the  same  end,  the  forgiveness  of  sins  is  to  be  made 
the  central  burden  in  prayer  (Matt.  6  :  12,  14;  18  :  23ff.) 
This  attitude  is  the  condition  precedent  for  the  under- 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED    193 

standing  and  reception  of  the  grace  of   God  as  it  is 
offered  to  us  in  the  Son. 

Jesus  was  the  offer  of  God's  sin-forgiving  grace  in 
His  whole  life — in  His  words,  His  works,  His  person. 
But  what  He  thus  was,  He  became  fully  by  the  termina- 
tion of  His  life.  Thus  the  deep-seated  unsusceptibility 
which  He  was  compelled  to  face  was  made  to  contribute 
to  the  fulfillment  of  the  divine  plan.  In  this  the  Son 
recognizes  the  will  of  the  Father,  who,  in  this  way  ac- 
complishes His  purpose  of  salvation.  For  it  is  the 
work  of  God  that  He  gave  His  Son  to  death  for  the 
reconciliation  of  the  world.  But  this  death  is  at  the 
same  time  the  work  of  sin,  and  thus  the  appalling  evi- 
dence of  that  which  separates  God  and  man.  Thus  it  lays 
the  life-question  of  the  forgiveness  of  sins  with  its  whole 
weight  upon  the  conscience.  In  doing  so,  it  casts  also 
the  clearest  light  upon  the  sinner-seeking,  sin-bearing 
love  which  is  the  fundamental  characteristic  of  His  whole 
life — the  love  which  in  devoted  service  offers  up  its  life, 
inspired  by  the  sure  hope  of  thus  attaining  what  its  life 
had  not  attained,  the  salvation  of  many  (Mark  10  :45) 
and  the  establishment  of  the  new  divine  order.  (Matt. 
26  : 28.)  God  by  His  own  deed  gives  testimony  that  it 
is  His  work.  Thus  the  Risen  Jesus  can  again  appear  be- 
fore His  people  in  the  testimony  borne  by  His  disciples. 
The  call  to  repentance,  couched  in  the  monumental  deed- 
language  of  the  cross  as  the  symbol  of  guilt  and  judg- 
ment, is  the  new  offer  of  the  forgiveness  of  sins.*  Thus 
the  crucified  and  risen  Jesus  is  felt  to  be  what  He  is — 
the  bearer  of  the  holy,  judicial,  life-giving  grace  of  God. 
The  cross  becomes  the  sign  of  the  grace  of  God,  which 
itself  solves  the  problem  of  sin.  The  believer  who  looks 


*  Acts  2  : 38 ;  3  : 19 ;  5  : 31 ;  10  : 43 ;  13  : 38. 

13 


194   THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

up  to  the  cross  is  profoundly  interested  in  the  life-prob- 
lem of  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  but  as  a  solved  problem. 
In  the  Christ,  who  always  presents  Himself  as  the  Cruci- 
fied, the  problem  has  for  him  found  its  solution.  Thus 
he  adores  the  miracle  of  grace:  "for  us,  for  our  sins" 
(i  Thes.  5  :  10;  I  Cor.  15  :3),  the  innocent  for  the 
guilty  (2  Cor.  5  :  21 ;  Rom.  5:8),  the  Son  for  the  recon- 
ciliation of  the  world.  (2  Cor.  5  :  19.)  This  is  the  con- 
summation, the  realization  of  the  grace  of  God. 

It  is  the  task  of  piety,  having  first  made  its  own  the 
great  life-question,  to  now  fully  appropriate  the  response 
and  solution  which  God  has  given.  In  life  and  thought, 
in  practice  and  theology,  the  Church  and  every  separate 
member  of  it  must  spell  out  this  solution  in  order  more 
and  more  profoundly  and  comprehensively  to  grasp  and 
understand  and  experience  it.  The  testimony  of  the 
apostles  points  out  to  us  the  way.  If  we  are  to  be  guided 
by  the  counting  of  words,  we  might,  perhaps,  here  even 
more  readily  than  in  the  testimony  of  Jesus,  be  inclined 
to  doubt  the  central  significance  of  this  article  of  the 
Creed.  The  attempt  has  recently  been  made  to  prove 
a  wide  divergency  between  the  teachings  of  the  Reform- 
ers, who  speak  of  a  "daily"  forgiveness  of  sins,  and  that 
of  Paul,  which  leaves  no  room  whatever  for  sin  in  the 
Christian's  life.  And  yet  the  whole  preaching  of  Paul 
was  a  proclamation  of  the  sin-forgiving  grace  of  God 
in  Christ,  the  crucified  and  risen  Lord.  The  divine  re- 
sponse to  the  great  life-question,  which  had  affected  his 
life  more  profoundly,  no  doubt,  than  in  most  men,  con- 
stitutes the  substance  of  his  Gospel.  He  tells  us  where 
this  response  is  to  be  found.  His  Gospel  is  the  "word 
of  the  cross,"  i.e.,  the  Crucified  One  as  the  living  Lord. 
In  Him  the  sin-forgiving  grace  of  God  has  become  an 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED        195 

actual  reality ;  *  in  Him,  who  was  crucified  and  yet  ever 
lives,  it  comes  to  life.  But  if  it  comes  to  life,  then  it  is 
a  "new  creature."  (2  Cor.  5  :  17.)  Paul  can  attest  this 
from  his  own  profound  personal  experience.  He  there- 
fore shows,  in  the  second  place,  that  this  grace  is  the 
source  and  power  of  a  new  life.  No  one  can  accept 
the  Crucified  and  Risen  One  except  by  dying  and  rising 
with  Him.  Faith  in  Christ  has  the  Spirit,  and  the  Spirit 
is  the  power  of  a  new  life.  It  is  thus  made  manifest  what 
is  the  significance  of  the  grace  of  God  which  secures 
the  forgiveness  of  sins,  i.e.,  leads  through  judgment  to 
deliverance  and  reconciliation  with  God.  The  present 
points  beyond  itself  to  the  consummation  of  faith,  which 
shall  unite  the  believer  completely  with  his  Lord  and 
enable  the  Spirit  of  life  to  reach  its  full  attainment. 

But  this  life  is  found  only  where  there  is  faith.  From 
the  nature  of  grace  it  is  to  be  inferred,  in  the  third  place, 
how  man  receives  it.  It  is  not  to  be  earned,  for  then  it 
would  not  be  grace.  The  correlate  of  sin-forgiving  grace 
is  faith.  Hence,  the  proposition:  "Not  by  the  works 
of  the  law,  but  by  faith,"  is  the  guiding  principle  of  the 
doctrine  of  justification.  In  this  Paul  posited  his  con- 
ception of  religion,  as  it  is  to  be  derived  from  the  Gos- 
pel of  the  forgiveness  of  sins.  Its  assertion  is  simply 
this:  Salvation  can  become  man's  possession  only 
through  God's  approach  to  him  with  His  forgiving  grace. 
The  testimony  of  the  apostles  shows  how  grace,  which  is 
in  its  very  nature  sin-forgiving  grace,  proves  itself  to  be 
the  power  of  life.  And  thus  is  brought  out  into  clear 
light  the  divine  solution  of  the  life-question  of  the  for- 
giveness of  sins,  as  this  is  furnished  in  Jesus  Christ.  In 


*  Compare  2  Cor.  5  : 19;  Rom.  3  :2iff.;  4:7;  Col.  I  :  14;  3  : 
13 ;  Eph.   I  :  7 ;  4  :  32. 


196   THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

this  way,  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  properly  considered,  in 
its  embodiment  and  in  its  historical  and  effectual  offer  in 
the  Crucified  One,  appears  as  in  reality  the  central  bless- 
ing of  the  Gospel.  At  the  same  time,  we  cannot  fail  to 
observe  that  the  forgiveness  of  sins  committed  in  the 
course  of  the  Christian's  life  is  already  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, as  in  the  injunction  to  daily  prayer  to  this  end, 
represented  as  a  separate  blessing  to  be  constantly  ap- 
propriated anew.* 

The  New  Testament,  we  have  said,  is  the  guide  for  the 
Church,  which  must  constantly  appropriate  anew  the 
grace  of  God.  Who  will  deny  that  piety  has  often  gone 
astray  in  despite  of  its  guide?  But  its  very  wanderings 
must  make  more  manifest  the  significance  of  the  forgiv- 
ing grace  of  God.  When  faith  becomes  submerged,  upon 
the  one  hand,  in  legality  and  moralism,  and  then,  upon  the 
other  hand,  in  a  naturalistic  sacramentarianism  which  can 
no  longer  appreciate  grace  as  a  personal  power,  to  what 
shall  we  ascribe  these  aberrations  if  not  to  the  fact  that 
it  is  no  longer  understood  that  in  the  forgiveness  of  sins, 
apprehended  by  faith,  grace  is  effectually  at  work,  recon- 
ciling and  imparting  life?  But  in  all  the  perversions  of 
the  Church's  religion  of  grace,  the  preaching  of  the  law 
and  the  sacrament  of  repentance  must  see  to  it  that  the 
life-question  is  kept  prominent.  And  the  image  of  cruci- 
fied Love  may  then  speak  to  the  heart,  however  defective 
the  mental  apprehension. 

The  Reformation  brought  together  again  the  question, 
i.e.,  the  "terrified  conscience,"  and  the  answer,  i.e.,  Christ. 
It  was  convinced  that  it  had  thus  rediscovered  the  Gospel. 
The  forgiveness  of  sins  is  its  germinal  principle  and  its 
guiding  star.f  With  this  all  else  is  secured,  for  "where 

*  Compare  i  John  i  :  9;  2  :  i ;  3  :  igf.;  Heb.  4  : 16;  10  :  i8ff. 
fFor  this  valuation,  compare  only  Luther  II.  717,  33:    "There 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED        197 

there  is  remission  of  sins,  there  is  also  life  and  salvation." 
The  child  of  God  can  now  joyously  entrust  himself  in 
all  things  to  the  loving  care  of  his  Father.  This  forgiv- 
ing grace  is  to  be  apprehended  in  Christ.  The  word  of 
Christ  offers  it  to  us,  hence  its  significance.  The  sacra- 
ment is  the  seal  of  this  grace.  In  the  struggle  of  life, 
in  the  dangers  and  false  steps  incident  to  our  life  in  this 
"evil  world,"  forgiveness  needs  to  be  daily  appropriated 
anew.  In  urging  this,  the  leaders  of  the  Reformation  laid 
special  stress  upon  the  fact  that  the  forgiving  grace  of 
God  in  Christ  has  and  is  a  new  life.  But  the  controversy 
with  the  Papists,  who  claimed  that  works  must  be  asso- 
ciated with  faith  for  its  completion,  and  the  problem 
arising  from  the  life  of  faith  itself,  i.e.,  how  works  are 
to  be  regarded,  brought  it  about  that  justification  by  faith 
alone,  i.e.,  the  grace  of  forgiveness,  was  soon  in  turn 
placed  in  contrast  with  the  new  life.  The  forgiveness  of 
sins  thus  becomes  a  special  separate  blessing.  Inasmuch 
as  this  blessing  is  to  be  ever  apprehended  anew  by  be- 
lievers, it  becomes  the  criterion  for  the  Christian's  self- 
examination.  Ritschl,  as  is  well  known,  has  regarded 
the  doctrine  of  justification  as  held  by  the  Reformers  in 
this  light.  In  the  setting  of  the  doctrine  of  the  forgive- 
ness of  sins  in  contrast  with  that  of  the  new  life  there 
lurks  a  danger — that  of  isolation.  This  isolation  was  pro- 
moted largely  by  the  dogmatic  development  of  the  doc- 
trine. This  made  justification  one  stage  in  the  way  of 
salvation.  In  the  practical  application  of  the  doctrine,  the 
stress  was  laid  upon  the  "daily"  repentance,  and  the  com- 
forting aspects  were  allowed  to  come  into  too  great  a 
prominence  as  contrasted  with  the  stimulating  elements 


is  no  greater  sin  than  not  to  believe  the  article,  forgiveness  of 
sins." 


198   THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

of  the  doctrine.  That  the  forgiveness  of  sins  is  the  central 
blessing  of  God  to  man  and  the  source  of  a  new  life,  the 
orthodox  teachers  did  not  succeed  in  making  sufficiently 
plain  either  in  their  teaching  or — broadly  speaking — in 
the  life  of  the  Church.  Pietism,  in  its  own  way,  trans- 
formed the  inherited  doctrine  of  salvation  into  practice. 
But  the  age  was  almost  totally  lacking  in  an  important 
requisite  for  the  understanding  of  the  Gospel  of  the  for- 
giveness of  sins,  i.e.,  in  Theocentricism,  an  appreciation 
of  the  sublimity  and  solemnity  of  the  conception  of  God 
as  the  Lord.  For  Rationalism,  the  life-question  vanishes 
entirely.  How  utterly  lacking  in  appreciation  of  the  Gos- 
pel of  forgiving  grace  even  serious  thinkers  may  become 
under  the  blinding  influence  of  their  moralism,  may  be 
observed  in  no  less  a  writer  than  Kant.*  But  the  Gospel 
of  the  Reformation  became  again  a  living  force,  and, 
we  may  fearlessly  affirm,  it  is  alive  to-day.  In  old 
forms  and  new,  the  message  of  the  forgiveness  of  sins 
in  Christ  and  His  blood  retains  its  old  quickening  energy 
as  an  awakening  power  within  and  without  the  "Church," 
even  in  the  nineteenth  and  twentieth  centuries.  And  for 
the  piety  that  toils  and  grows  in  scope  and  depth,  the  for- 
giveness of  sins  remains  the  source  of  comfort  and 
strength.  The  article  of  the  forgiveness  of  sins  needs 
to  be  worthily  interpreted  in  both  directions  by  the  self- 
contemplation  of  faith,  i.e.,  dogmatics.  The  theology  of 
the  Church  will  thus  apprehend  it  as  the  fundamental 
article  of  the  Gospel.  Our  historical  review  has  given  us 
a  proper  perspective,  and  we  may  now,  perhaps,  venture 
in  brief  outline  to  deduce  the  significance  of  the  forgive- 
ness of  sins  from  the  actual  experience  of  the  Christian's 
life. 

*  Compare  "Die  Religion  innerhalb  der  Grenzen  der  blossen 
Vernunft."     Reclam.  p.  I24ff. 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED   199 

II.  The  forgiveness  of  sins  is  actually  the  central 
blessing  of  the  Gospel.  It  is  the  great  end  sought  by  that 
gracious  will  of  God  which  from  its  very  nature  is  the 
source  of  every  blessing.  Wherever  it  is  recognized  as 
the  great  decisive  life-question,  it  presents  itself  as  the 
preliminary  condition  for  the  attainment  of  salvation. 
When  the  Lord  and  Judge  forgives,  i.e.,  when  He  is 
gracious,  then  the  happy  recipient  of  His  grace  is  per- 
mitted to  know  Him  as  the  God  of  life.  But  the  faith 
to  which  the  forgiveness  of  sins  has  become  in  Christ  a 
reality  well  knows  it  to  be  more  than  a  preliminary  con- 
dition. Just  because  forgiveness  has  become  to  it  a  real- 
ity, faith  experiences  what  salvation  is  in  its  inmost 
nature.  It  is  communion  with  the  living,  personal  God, 
i.e.,  the  God  of  holy  love.  The  forgiveness  of  sins  is  the 
opening  and  establishment  of  communion  between  the 
sinner  and  God.  In  it,  God  enters  as  the  holy  God  of 
judgment  into  our  life,  the  God  to  whom  we  owe  abso- 
lute obedience,  from  whom  there  can  be  no  concealing 
of  sin  and  guilt,  but  who  is  also  Love  and  who  is  ready 
to  forgive  and  to  bestow  life  in  communion  with  Himself. 
Thus  communion  becomes  an  established  fact.  This  is 
the  profoundest  element  of  life.  It  awakens  confidence 
in  the  fatherly  care  of  God  even  in  matters  of  the  out- 
ward life,  presents  new  tasks  and  aims,  and  carries  with 
it  the  promise  of  complete  life  beyond  the  grave.  There- 
fore, the  forgiveness  of  sins  is  not  one  blessing  among 
many,  but  the  central  blessing  in  which  all  else  is  in- 
cluded. 

This  is  abundantly  confirmed  by  the  fact  that  wher- 
ever forgiveness  is  appropriated  in  faith  a  new  moral 
life  springs  into  being.  It  is  a  caricature  of  the  for- 
giveness of  sins,  and  not  the  forgiveness  which  Jesus 
brought  and  which  the  faith  of  the  Reformation  finds 


200        THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

in  the  Crucified — not  the  forgiveness  of  which  the  living 
God  assures  us — to  which  can  be  justly  charged  a  weak- 
ening of  the  sense  of  moral  responsibility  and  of  the 
moral  energy.  The  forgiveness  of  sins,  by  its  very  nature, 
sets  before  the  soul  God  as  the  Judge,  and  sin  as  at  once 
both  sin  and  guilt.  The  condemnation  of  sin  is  pre- 
supposed in  forgiveness,  or,  rather,  the  condemnation  is 
itself  effected  and  experienced,  provided,  of  course,  that 
the  recipient  does  not  regard  it  as  a  booty  nor  as  a 
matter  of  course,  but  accepts  it  in  prayerful  and  penitent 
faith,  i.e.,  appears  before  the  holy  God  in  order  to  re- 
ceive it  from  Him.  Since  the  forgiveness  of  sins  thus, 
as  an  absolutely  unmerited  gift  of  the  grace  of  the  holy 
God,  becomes  the  revelation  of  wonderful  Love  seeking 
the  sinful  and  the  lost,  it  at  the  same  time  calls  into 
active  exercise  all  the  motives  of  love  and  gratitude.  It 
thus  also  assures  the  effectual  working  of  all  impressions 
of  the  divine  mercy  upon  the  life  of  the  new-born  child 
of  God,  which  is  to  reflect  the  life  and  character  of  the 
Father.  Forgiveness  enables  us  to  experience  the  pro- 
found love  of  the  Father.  In  order  to  appreciate  the 
actual  effect  of  forgiveness  upon  the  life,  we  dare  not 
fail  to  note  that  the  certainty  of  pardoning  grace  is  ap- 
plied to  the  concrete  guilt  of  the  individual  person.  It 
thus  enters  actually  and  actively  into  the  conflict  which 
marks  the  individual's  life.  The  personal  application  is 
the  distinguishing  trait  of  faith  in  pardoning  grace.  "Thy 
sins  are  forgiven  thee."  The  personal  assurance  is  the 
strength  of  the  life.  This  influence  is  experienced 
especially  in  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  The 
forgiveness  there  directly  and  personally  promised  re- 
leases the  soul  from  the  distressing  curse  of  the  sin 
which  seems  to  actually  dominate  the  life  and  from  the 
oppressing  burden  of  guilt.  It  banishes  fear  and  de- 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED        201 

spair,  It  gives  a  fresh  start  in  life,  with  all  the  uplift 
and  encouragement  and  promises  that  it  carries  with  it. 
There  is  something  wonderful  about  this  fresh  start.  But 
it  is  possible  to  make  it  again  and  again  without  loss  of 
confidence  only  because  forgiveness,  apprehended  in 
Christ,  bears  with  it  the  assurance  that  the  fresh  start 
does  not  always  lead  back  again  into  the  old  ways,  i.e., 
because  forgiveness  is  really  the  solution  of  the  problem 
of  sin,  however  far  beyond  the  scenes  of  the  present  con- 
flict its  final  conquest  may  seem  to  lie. 

But  how  can  forgiveness  impart  this  assurance?  It 
can  do  so  because  it  introduces  a  new  actual  condition, 
in  which  the  believer  is  released  from  the  curse  of  sin 
and  brought  into  a  condition  of  communion  with  God. 
Thus  the  central  thought,  when  allowed  the  pre-emi- 
nence, aids  in  the  solution  of  the  special  problems  that 
arise.  The  motives  which  forgiveness  calls  into  action 
in  man's  attitude  toward  God  become  effective  because 
man  through  the  pardon  of  his  sins  assumes  upon  his  part 
a  relation  of  communion  with  God.  Since  he  bows  be- 
fore the  God  who  is  the  holy  Judge,  and  at  the  same 
time  lays  hold  upon  the  grace  which  seeks  the  sinner  and 
is  ready  to  forgive,  he  enters  into  that  relation  of  a  child 
to  the  heavenly  Father  which  includes  in  itself  the  rela- 
tion of  a  servant  to  God  the  Lord.  But  the  law  and 
source  of  this  relation  of  communion  is  the  divine  de- 
sire for  communion,  i.e.,  the  holy  loving-will  of  God, 
which  is  the  will  to  promote  that  which  is  good.  Com- 
munion with  God  is  the  very  essence  of  morality  if  it  be 
true  that  the  love  which  inspires  the  personal  life  and 
finds  its  consummation  in  self -surrender  is  the  law  of 
morality  and  the  world  of  voluntary  activity  its  sphere. 
In  the  communion  with  God  which  he  enjoys  through  par- 
doning grace,  the  believer  first  learns  to  really  know  what 


202        THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

"communion"  is.  The  religious  relation  is  itself  in  a  pre- 
eminent sense  a  moral  relation,  because  it  is  the  funda- 
mental personal  relation.  It  cannot,  indeed,  be  placed 
upon  a  level  with  the  special  "ethical"  relation  of  fellow- 
ship, i.e.,  with  the  relations  of  men  in  their  mutual  asso- 
ciations. As  the  relation  to  the  "absolute"  will — to  God, 
it  stands  far  above  all  relationships  among  men.  But  by 
its  very  nature  it  embraces  and  interpenetrates  all  "ethi- 
cal" relations,  which  find  in  it  their  deepest  root.  The 
service  of  God  is  service  rendered  to  our  brethren.  Com- 
munion with  eternal  Love  is  proved  when  man  becomes 
its  instrument  and  agent.  There  exists,  therefore,  the 
most  intimate  organic  connection  between  religion  and 
the  moral  life.  Forgiveness  has  also  a  place  in  the  asso- 
ciated life  of  men.  It  is  the  test  of  the  desire  for  fellow- 
ship. The  divine  forgiveness  becomes  its  strength  and  its 
law.  (Matt.  18  : 23-35.)  He  w^°  has  been  forgiven  can 
and  should  forgive ;  for  he  can  and  should  love  in  a  new 
way.  He  thereby  proves  that  the  loving-will  (of  God) 
has  entered  his  life.  In  this  loving-will,  which  is  the  holy 
loving-will  and  as  such  manifests  itself  especially  in  for- 
giveness, he  finds  the  law  for  his  love  and  the  rule  for 
his  devoted  service — but  the  rule  no  less  for  his  "experi- 
ence" of  love  as  the  supreme  vitalizing  blessing  of  life, 
which  the  Creator  has  made  the  law  even  of  the  natural 
life.  The  divine  Love  is  the  rule  and  source  of  even 
the  natural  relations  of  life,  which  it  seeks  to  mould  into 
actual  relations  of  love.  But  it  forms  for  itself  a  com- 
munion of  its  own  in  the  fellowship  of  those  who  have 
been  reconciled  to  God  through  Christ,  in  the  "brother- 
hood" of  the  faith.  That  this  brotherhood  may  upon  its 
part  penetrate  and  purify  and  sanctify  all  "natural"  fel- 
lowship, must  be  and  remain  its  final  aim. 

Thus  the  pardoning  grace  of  God  must  manifest  itself 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED        203 

as  the  power  of  a  new  life.  But  just  when  the  moral  life 
is  thus  developing,  when  the  forsaking  of  the  old  ways 
becomes  the  law  of  the  life,  when  the  man  in  his  inner- 
most being  is  profoundly  controlled  by  the  will  of  holy 
Love, — then  does  the  forgiveness  of  sins  receive  a  new 
and  abiding  significance  as  a  divine  blessing  to  be  con- 
stantly appropriated  anew,  i.e.,  as  the  ground  of  assur- 
ance. It  does  not  become  less  essential  with  the  advance 
of  the  Christian  life.  That  advance  is  in  no  small  degree 
an  advance  in  the  knowledge  of  sin,  and  thus  necessarily 
ki  the  appreciation  of  forgiveness.  A  knowledge  of  sin 
and  its  condemnation  constitutes  a  fundamental  and  indis- 
pensable condition  for  a  proper  understanding  of  Christ, 
for  the  faith  which  in  the  Crucified  appropriates  the  grace 
of  God.  They  stand,  therefore,  at  the  beginning  of  the 
Christian  life.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  only  this 
faith,  which  draws  its  life  from  the  fountain  of  grace, 
which  comes  to  really  know  how  wicked  we  really  are 
by  nature.  And  the  more  complete  this  knowledge  be- 
comes, the  greater  pardoning  grace  is  seen  to  be.  It  is 
precisely  the  maturest  faith  that  most  clearly  recognizes 
pardoning  grace  as  the  exclusive  ground  of  salvation.  .  .  . 
Thus  the  forgiveness  of  sins  appears,  even  in  the  new 
life  itself,  as  the  final  ground  of  confidence.  It  is  pre- 
cisely the  apostles  of  love  who  are  the  heralds  of  grace. 
Whoever  knew  Father  Bodelschwingh,*  whose  life  was 
devoted  without  reserve  to  the  ministry  of  mercy,  can- 
not forget  how  untiringly  he  proclaimed  the  great  mes- 
sage :  "By  grace  are  ye  saved." 

The  continuous,  one  might  almost  say  increasing,  sig- 
nificance of  the  forgiveness  of  sins  has  its  profound  basis 


*  Pastor  of  the  "Colony  of  Mercy"  for  epileptics,  at  Bielefeld, 
Germany. 


204        THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

in  the  nature  of  the  religious  relationship.  In  this  is  re- 
vealed the  character  of  the  faith.  It  is  in  the  "reposing  in 
grace"  that  the  passive  elements  of  faith,  a  factor  in  the 
life  of  faith  which  cannot  be  externalized,  first  find  ade- 
quate expression.  Outside  of  the  sphere  of  our  strug- 
gle and  toil  lies  the  experience  of  rest,  of  peace  in  re- 
tirement, "in  the  arms  and  bosom  of  the  Good  Shep- 
herd," under  the  "wings  of  grace."  This  aim  must  be 
realized  even  in  the  midst  of  the  conflict  of  life,  and  it 
finds  its  realization  in  the  "peace"  of  the  reconciled  con- 
science. Here  the  longing  for  peace,  the  deep  religious 
yearning  for  harmony  and  "blessedness,"  is  sanctified  and 
gratified.  It  is  just  the  Christian  life  which  is  constantly 
advancing  that  realizes  more  and  more  profoundly  that 
only  grace  can  be  the  ground  of  peace.  But  pardoning 
grace  proves  to  be  a  protection  also  against  all  perversions 
of  this  longing  for  peace  and  blessedness,  because,  wher- 
ever it  is  truly  appropriated,  it  opposes  the  tendency  to 
degenerate  into  quietism.  The  forgiveness  of  sins  can 
never  become  a  mere  sedative ;  it  is  always  also  a  motive 
power — whenever  and  wherever  it  is  a  genuine  experi- 
ence. No  one  can  appropriate  the  divine  pardon  ever 
anew  without  thereby  growing  constantly  in  holy  love 
and  becoming  ever  more  closely  bound  to  the  God  who 
forgives  sins, — and  this  must  show  itself  in  the  life.  But 
to  him  who  is  pressing  tirelessly  onward  in  service  and 
conflict  the  thought  of  pardoning  grace,  kept  ever  freshly 
before  him  by  his  errors,  deficiencies  and  backslidings — 
the  grace  which  furnishes  him  strength  to  journey  on- 
ward undismayed — brings  with  it  that  which  assures  a 
true  and  healthy  development  of  the  maturing  Christian 
life,  i.e.,  an  ever-deepening  consciousness  that  it  is  all, 
all  pure  grace.  And  thus  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  as  the 
"canon"  of  the  religious  self-consciousness,  points  for- 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED        205 

ward  also  to  the  time  beyond  the  period  of  strife,  when 
sin  shall  be  finally  abolished  in  the  world  of  glory.  It 
enables  the  believer  to  grow  into  that  inner  attitude  of 
the  soul  toward  God  which  is  and  remains  for  time  and 
eternity  the  secret  of  the  life  hidden  in  God. 

Thus  the  forgiveness  of  sins  stands  really  at  the  center 
of  the  Christian  life  in  its  beginning,  growth  and  con- 
summation. It  leads  to  fellowship  with  God  and  main- 
tains the  life  in  proper  relation  to  Him.  It  is  the  source 
of  the  Christian's  life  and  the  regulating  principle  of  his 
self-consciousness.  How  can  it  be  this?  Because  it 
places  man  in  the  presence  of  God,  and  in  it  God  enters 
the  life.  The  forgiveness  of  sins  is  the  effective  self- 
attestation  of  the  God  of  holy  love  Himself,  the  God  of 
judgment,  who  desires  to  be  the  Father.  It  is  therefore 
the  very  heart  of  the  Word  of  God.  But  it  cannot  be 
this  so  long  as  it  remains  an  unsolved  life-question.  As 
such,  it  includes  the  instinctive  recognition  of  God  and  the 
natural  longing  for  communion  with  Him,  but  not  the 
certainty  and  the  reality.  But  it  becomes  reality  in  Christ, 
the  inexorable  preacher  of  repentance,  who  is  at  the  same 
time  the  Saviour  of  sinners — in  Him,  the  Crucified,  who 
is  the  Everliving  One,  the  bearer  of  holy,  divine  love. 
This  is  the  mystery  of  faith.  For  this  reason  it  is  a 
Christ-faith.  In  Christ,  the  forgiveness  of  sins  is  reality 
and  truth.  Therefore  He  is  the  reconciling  revelation 
of  God.  In  this  way,  the  forgiveness  of  sins  becomes  the 
interpretation  of  the  second  article  of  the  Creed,  and, 
through  it,  also  of  the  third.  Because  the  Reformation 
appropriated  the  pardoning  grace  of  God  in  the  Crucified 
One,  the  whole  Creed  for  it  took  on  new  life. 

Thus  the  forgiveness  of  sins  is  really  the  central  article 
of  evangelical  faith.  This  article  inducts  into  the  secret 
"of  the  Christian  life.  But  it  points  back  as  well  to 


206   THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

revelation.  It  binds  in  union  faith  and  God,  revelation 
and  the  life  of  faith.  It  makes  the  Creed  a  confession  of 
faith,  and  gives  it  its  inner  unity.  The  Reformation  recog- 
nized this.  The  article  upon  the  forgiveness  of  sins 
enables  us  to  feel  that  the  eternal  God  of  all  the  worlds^ 
the  Lord  who  controls  all  things,  is  our  Father.  It  gives 
the  profoundest  interpretation  to  the  whole  life  of  Christ. 
It  shows  how  God  enters  into  man's  life,  i.e.,  that  He 
is  experienced  as  the  Holy  Spirit.  The  conception  which 
is  held  of  the  forgiveness  of  sins  announces  a  man's  doc- 
trine of  God,  betrays  his  Christology,  and  is  plainly  seen 
in  his  delineation  of  the  Christian  life.  The  forgiveness 
of  sins  holds  a  place  above  all  the  reasonings  of  faith, 
because  it  is  the  secret  of  revelation,  and,  therefore,  the 
secret  of  the  Christian  life. 

But  just  when  we  have  appraised  the  forgiveness  of 
sins  as  the  central  article  of  the  Creed  and  the  central 
doctrine  of  Christianity,  we  may  involuntarily  shrink 
back  from  the  statement.  We  must  experience  forgive- 
ness. If  we  treat  it  as  an  article  of  doctrine,  \ve  lift  it 
in  fact  out  of  its  proper  sphere.  It  might  be  designated 
as  its  special  mission  that  it  shall,  upon  the  man  who 
transmutes  the  reality  of  his  life  and  the  reality  of  God 
into  feelings  and  ideas,  impress  this  great  reality  in  its 
rightful  claims  and  demands  as  a  reality.  This  must  in 
some  way  be  clearly  recognized  in  the  elucidation  of  the 
doctrine.  But  it  is  forced  upon  our  attention  above  all 
by  the  "irrationality"  which  reaches  out  far  beyond  all 
our  thinking  and  our  thoughts.  It  is  the  irrationality  of 
reality  which  can,  in  the  last  instance,  be  only  experi- 
enced. The  forgiveness  of  sins  brings  to  view  the  irra- 
tionality of  human  life,  since  it  speaks  of  sin.  Sin  is  the 
irrational  phenomenon  of  our  life,  not  only  theoretically, 
because  the  fact  of  the  evil  will  and  severance  from  God 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED       207 

and  the  good  can  in  the  last  instance  be  apprehended  only 
as  a  fact,  but  also  practically,  because  it  is  the  ruin  of 
life,  the  dissolving  of  the  fellowship,  and  the  denial  of  the 
moral  reason.  Upon  the  soul  of  the  pious  man  the  irra- 
tionality of  sin  impresses  itself  especially  in  the  contra- 
diction, that  he  must  regard  it  as  his  inherited  state  and 
yet  as  his  own  act  and  his  own  guilt.  "Rational"  thought 
explains  away  the  irrationality  by  speaking  of  the  neces- 
sary stage  of  development  and  of  ignorance.  But  this 
solution  ignores  the  reality  of  sin  as  the  believer  ex- 
periences it.  There  is  but  one  way  to  overcome  the  dif- 
ficulty. It  is  the  way  of  forgiveness.  This  vanquishes 
sin  as  a  real  thing,  and  thus  proves  itself  the  way  of 
divine  wisdom.  But  this  is  for  the  rational  thought  of  the 
natural  man  itself  a  monstrous  irrationality,  at  least  in 
the  reality  which  faith  confesses.  The  wisdom  of  this 
method  is  understood  only  by  him  to  whom  the  God  who 
forgives  sins  becomes  a  reality.  And  even  for  the  faith 
which  experiences  what  sin  is  and  who  God  is,  it  remains 
a  miracle — remains  the  paradox  of  grace,  which  surpasses 
all  our  thought.  Hence  Luther  could  declare  that  no 
article  of  the  Creed  is  harder  to  believe.*  But  in  its 
very  paradox,  in  its  irrationality,  it  proclaims  its  divine 
reality,  in  which  it  becomes  the  secure  basis  of  life.  It 
leads  beyond  ideas  to  life.  It  places  everyone  who  is  will- 
ing to  consider  candidly  the  reality  of  his  own  life  face  to 
face  with  the  reality  of  God,  who  can  alone  solve  the  life- 
problem.  Just  on  this  account,  it  is  the  burning-point  of 
the  Church's  confession  of  faith,  which  is  a  life-faith. 
Therefore,  too,  it  carries  with  it  the  pledge  of  ever- 
lasting life. 


*  Compare  Erl.  Ed.,  50,  310!. 


CHAPTER  XIII 
Resurrection  of  the  Flesh  and  a  Life  Everlasting 

BY  DR.  K.  BORNHAUSER 

PROFESSOR    OF    SYSTEMATIC    AND    PRACTICAL    THEOLOGY    AT    MARBURG 

How  many  in  our  day  would  be  better  satisfied  to  have 
the  Creed  close  simply  with  the  words :  I  believe  in  the 
life  everlasting!  We  would  then  have  avoided  the  bitter 
controversy  upon  the  resurrection  of  the  flesh.  And 
would  it  not  be  sufficient  to  confess  our  belief  in  the 
life  everlasting?  Do  not  these  words  themselves  em- 
brace everything  to  which  our  hope  looks  forward  and 
for  which  it  longs?  Who  can  deny  that  "eternal  life" 
may  include  everything  for  which  the  Christian  hopes? 
If  only  "eternal  life"  had  not  become  a  formula  to  which 
the  most  various  meanings  are  attached!  If  the  hope 
of  everlasting  life  is  to  remain  a  Christian  hope,  it  dare 
not  be  severed  from  the  hope  of  resurrection.  It  is  well 
that  the  language  stands  as  it  does:  "I  believe  in  the 
resurrection  and  the  life  everlasting." 

But  here  others  will  say:  If  it  only  stood  thus!  We 
do  not  object  to  the  hope  of  a  resurrection  altogether, 
but  to  the  resurrection  of  the  flesh.  If  it  was  just  sim- 
ply :  resurrection  of  the  body,  or  of  the  dead,  as  in  many 
other  ancient  symbols !  To  that  we  could  accommodate 
ourselves.  That  would  correspond  to  the  New  Testa- 
ment. Luther  would  in  his  day  have  preferred  that,  for 
in  his  Larger  Catechism,  as  is  well  known,  he  did  not 
use  the  term,  "resurrection  of  the  flesh,"  Really  ?  Does 

208 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED   209 

resurrection  of  the  body,  or  of  the  dead,  really  mean 
something  else  than  resurrection  of  the  flesh?  Does  not 
the  New  Testament,  does  not  especially  Paul,  really  know 
anything  of  a  resurrection  of  the  flesh?  Has  Luther 
really  any  substantial  objection,  based  on  principle,  to 
the  term,  resurrection  of  the  flesh?  To  all  these  ques- 
tions we  must  answer  bluntly,  No.  It  was  reserved  for 
a  later  age,  particularly  our  own,  to  so  abuse  the  word, 
resurrection,  as  to  make  it  equivalent  to  the  entirely  in- 
definite phrase:  "living  on  after  death."  The  Saddu- 
cees  and  Pharisees,  Jesus  and  His  disciples,  the  Jews  of 
the  Diaspora  and  the  Greeks  who  differed  with  them 
upon  this  very  question,  the  people  of  Corinth  and  the 
wise  men  of  Athens,  Paul  and  his  circle  of  assistants — 
these  all,  when  speaking  of  resurrection,  or  of  an  awak- 
ening from  the  dead,  whether  maintaining  or  denying  it, 
thought  of  the  fleshly  body  laid  in  the  grave,  not  of 
the  soul,  nor  of  the  Ego  of  the  man,  nor  of  the  body 
as  a  form  separable  from  the  flesh.  It  is  a  matter  of 
perfect  indifference  whether  we  say  "resurrection"  or 
"resurrection  of  the  body,"  or  "of  the  flesh,"  or  "of  the 
dead,"  for  the  word  "resurrection"  does  not  receive  its 
meaning  from  the  associated  word.  It  does  not,  it  is  true, 
assert  a  precise  identity  of  the  buried  and  the  risen  body, 
but  it  maintains  a  connection  between  the  buried  and  the 
risen  corporeality — a  connection  which  is  more  than  an 
identity  or  connection  of  form. 

The  declaration  of  Paul,  that  "flesh  and  blood  cannot 
inherit  the  kingdom  of  God,"  cannot  be  properly  cited 
against  this  view ;  for  Paul,  too,  believes  in  the  Jesus  who 
rose  from  the  grave.  No  art  of  exegesis  can  succeed  in 
proving  that  in  i  Cor.  15  :  iff.,  "hath  been  raised  on  the 
third  day,"  has  no  connection  with  the  immediately  pre- 
ceding, "He  was  buried;"  and  we  need  only  state  the 


210        THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

proposition  involved  in  this  connection:  The  buried  one 
was  raised,  to  see  plainly  that  when  Paul  speaks  of  resur- 
rection he  means  the  re-animation  of  the  earthly  body 
which  has  been  laid  in  the  grave.  And  when  he  further 
says:  "Whether  then  it  be  I  or  they  (the  first  apostles), 
so  we  preach,  and  so  ye  believed,"  he  bears  his  testi- 
mony as  clearly  as  anyone  could  desire  to  the  fact  that 
faith  in  Him  who  rose  from  the  grave  was  the  common 
faith  of  the  first  Christians.  It  is  equally  certain  that 
Paul  understands  the  resurrection  of  believers,  for  which 
he  hopes,  in  no  other  way  than  that  of  Christ  (except 
that  Christ  arose  after  three  days,  whereas  believers  will 
not  be  raised  until  the  Last  Day).  His  whole  argument 
(especially  in  i  Cor.  15  :  20,  21)  would  otherwise  fall 
to  pieces.  It  is  perfectly  evident,  therefore — from  the 
usage  of  language  in  the  days  of  the  New  Testament, 
from  the  universal  conviction  of  the  resurrection  of  Jesus 
from  the  grave,  and  from  the  basing  of  the  hope  of  the 
resurrection  of  believers  upon  this  resurrection  of  Jesus 
— that  the  early  Christians  expect  a  resurrection  by 
which  the  believer  will  be  exalted,  in  the  completeness  of 
his  being  as  created,  to  participation  in  the  eternal  king- 
dom of  God.  In  face  of  this,  it  is  a  matter  of  no  con- 
sequence that  the  formula,  "resurrection  of  the  flesh," 
is  not  found  in  the  New  Testament.  It  will  be  remem- 
bered, further,  that  Luke,  the  traveling  companion  of 
Paul,  speaks  of  the  flesh  of  the  Risen  Lord.* 

The  appeal  to  Luther  as  the  crown  witness  against  the 
resurrection  of  the  flesh  is  most  unfortunate  for  those 
who  have  been  bold  enough  to  venture  it.  The  claim, 
that  it  is  "well  known"  that  Luther  rejected  the  resur- 
rection of  the  flesh,  can  be  made  only  by  those  who  are 


*  Luke  24  :  39 ;  Acts  2  : 31. 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED        211 

unacquainted  with  his  writings.  Anyone  who  will  read 
carefully  the  celebrated  passage  in  the  Larger  Catechism 
must  see  that  he  is  led  to  recommend  the  formula, 
"resurrection  of  the  body,"  or  of  the  "corpse"  (  !)  only 
for  pedagogical  reasons,  i.e.,  to  make  the  matter  more 
plain  for  the  common  people.  Whoever  studies  Luther 
any  further  will  soon  discover  that  he  speaks  often 
enough  of  the  resurrection  of  the  flesh.  No  one  should 
attempt,  therefore,  to  array  either  Paul  or  Luther  against 
the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  of  the  flesh. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  it  would  be  an  entirely  insuffi- 
cient and  unevangelical  defence  of  this  article  to  appeal 
for  its  support  simply  to  these  authorities.  He  who 
really  believes  in  the  resurrection  of  the  flesh  does  so, 
not  because  others  have  so  believed,  but  because  he  be- 
lieves in  God  the  Father,  in  the  Risen  Jesus,  and  in  the 
Holy  Spirit. 

The  confession  of  faith  in  the  resurrection  of  the  flesh 
has  its  root  in  belief  in  the  Father,  who  is  the  Creator. 
It  follows  from  the  harmony  of  the  redemptive  will  and 
the  creative  will  of  God,  that  the  world  created  by  Him 
has  been  appointed  to  be  the  place  for  the  revelation  of 
His  love.  To  it  belongs,  as  an  important  member,  man — 
and  that,  with  his  entire  creatural  equipment,  including 
his  flesh.  It  belongs  to  the  very  nature  of  man  that  he 
is  flesh.  It  is  an  utterly  unjustified  assertion  of  a  ration- 
alistic spiritualism  when  the  nature  of  man  is  said  to 
consist  of  body  (form-concept),  soul  and  spirit,  whereas 
the  flesh  is  regarded  as  an  accident.  As  over  against  this 
spiritualism,  materialism  is  right  in  emphasizing  the  sig- 
nificance of  the  material  for  man.  Man,  because  he  is  a 
creature  of  God,  is  an  organism,  not  an  accidental  con- 
glomerate. And  when  God,  by  virtue  of  His  love,  invites 
him  to  a  fellowship  of  life,  then  he,  not  a  part  of  him, 


212        THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

becomes  through  this  divine  love  and  life  a  partaker  of 
eternal  life.  It  would  be  heathen  Dualism  to  affirm  of 
the  flesh  of  man  that  in  it  the  divine  love  and  life  find  a 
limit  set  to  their  power  of  action. 

We  may  recall  that  Jesus,  in  arguing  with  the  Phari- 
sees (Mark  12  :  18-27),  appeals  in  support  of  the  hope  of 
resurrection  to  the  fact  that  God  is  the  God  of  Abraham. 
The  simple  argument  is:  Because  God  is  the  God  of 
Abraham,  therefore  Abraham  will  rise  from  the  dead. 
It  is  to  be  observed,  first  of  all,  that  it  is  the  resur- 
rection from  the  dead  on  the  Judgment  Day  which  is  here 
spoken  of.  In  that  resurrection  Abraham  will  have  a 
part,  and  then  only  will  it  be  perfectly  manifest  what  it 
means  for  him  that  God  is  his  God.  For  the  man  of 
God,  it  belongs  to  the  full  conception  of  life  to  be  risen 
from  the  dead  (and  this  in  the  New  Testament  sense, 
as  above  presented).  Regarding  the  matter  from  this 
point  of  view,  we  must  conclude  that  death  is  contrary 
to  the  nature  of  the  man  of  God,  and  can  have  power 
over  him  only  upon  the  supposition  that  he  has  been  sepa- 
rated from  God. 

The  confession  of  the  resurrection  of  the  flesh  is  based, 
further,  upon  faith  in  the  Risen  Jesus.  It  is  necessary 
to  repeat  with  emphasis — upon  faith  in  the  Risen  Jesus, 
in  order  to  avoid  the  error  of  basing  our  hope  of  the 
resurrection,  through  the  medium  of  a  syllogism,  upon 
"the  best-attested  fact  of  history."  Not  that  we  would 
detract  from  the  force  of  the  purely  historical  evidence 
of  the  resurrection  of  Jesus.  But  the  personal  assur- 
ance of  the  actual  reality  of  the  resurrection  of  Jesus, 
which  is  included  in  faith  in  the  Risen  One,  is  gained 
in  our  day  in  no  other  way  than  in  the  days  of 
Paul,  i.e.,  by  an  action  of  God,  who,  by  means  of  the 
testimony  to  the  crucified  and  risen  Christ,  makes  deep 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED       213 

inward  impression  upon  the  soul,  and  thus  assures 
it  of  the  truth  of  this  testimony.  Therefore,  we  believe 
in  the  Risen  Lord.  And,  with  this  faith,  the  objection 
that  the  fleshly  body  of  man  must  necessarily  fall  into 
decay  loses  all  its  force.  He  who  is  with  God  as  the 
Risen  One  is  the  Beginner  of  the  resurrection.  To  Him 
applies  in  a  very  special  sense  what  He  declares  of  Abra- 
ham in  proof  of  the  resurrection.  Jesus  is  God.  There- 
fore the  astonishing  thing  is,  not  that  He  rises  again  after 
His  death,  but  that  He  dies!  The  death  of  Christ  upon 
the  cross,  whether  the  emphasis  be  laid  upon  the  death 
itself,  or  upon  the  fact  that  the  death  occurred  upon  the 
cross,  was  in  accordance  with  the  will  of  Jesus,  and  not 
the  result  of  a  resistless  fate.  He  in  whom  was  God, 
reconciling  the  world  unto  Himself,  could  not  remain  in 
death,  for  God  is  not  a  God  of  the  dead.  But  the  Chris- 
tian, as  a  believer  in  Christ,  is  in  Christ,  and  thereby 
secured  against  that  severance  from  God  the  result  of 
which  is  death.  Yes,  in  the  language  of  Paul,  because 
he  is  in  Christ  he  is  already  arisen  before  he  dies.  In 
this  bold  paradox,  which  only  faith  in  the  Risen  Lord 
can  venture  to  utter,  he  expresses  his  absolute  assurance 
that  the  grace  of  God  in  Christ  will  effect  a  deliverance 
and  completion  of  the  entire  man  as  God  the  Creator 
made  him.  That  this  deliverance  and  completion  are  to 
be  acomplished  in  a  temporal  sequence,  cannot  shake  the 
assurance  of  faith. 

And,  finally,  we  hope  for  the  resurrection  of  the  flesh 
because  we  believe  in  the  Holy  Spirit.  Faith  in  the 
Holy  Spirit  is  faith  in  God,  who  maintains  an  active 
presence  within  the  world  that  He  has  made,  never  losing 
Himself  in  it,  and  yet  ever  more  completely  interpen- 
etrating it.  Self-impartation  of  God,  prompted  by  His 
free  love,  is  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  As  the  work 


214       THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

of  God,  there  are  no  limits  to  its  power  of  action  upon 
any  creature  of  God,  except  such  as  may  be  set  by  the 
creature's  own  will.  It  is  the  "little  faith"  of  rational- 
ism, bordering  on  heathen  Dualism,  when  it  is  taught 
that  the  action  of  the  Holy  Spirit  can  be  exerted  only 
upon  the  spirit  of  the  creature.  As  certainly  as  the  in- 
fluence of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  believer  is  not  magical, 
but  a  personally-exerted  influence,  so  surely  is  it  yet  un- 
completed as  long  as  the  entire  nature  of  the  man  is  not 
reached  and  determined  by  it.  The  man  who  is  united 
with  God  at  the  very  heart  of  his  being  will  by  the  quick- 
ening influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit  be  brought  into  fellow- 
ship with  God  in  all  the  aspects  of  his  being,  or,  in  other 
words,  will  be  led  to  life.  Paul  very  vividly  (especially 
in  Rom.  8)  presents  this  activity  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in 
effecting  the  redemption  and  glorification  of  the  world. 
First  of  all,  through  the  agency  of  the  Holy  Spirit  and 
man's  obedient  response  to  it,  faith  is  produced,  and 
thus  is  regained  the  normal  relation  of  man  to  God,  i.e., 
God  the  gracious  Giver  and  man  the  grateful  and  sin- 
cerely trustful  recipient,  (i  Cor.  2:4;  Rom.  1:5.) 
The  believer  is  led  and  controlled  by  the  Spirit  of  God. 
(Rom.  8  :  14.)  But  now,  upon  the  basis  of  this  presence 
of  the  Spirit,  it  becomes  possible  for  man  to  do  the  will 
of  God  in  appropriate  works.  The  establishment  of  the 
normal  relation  to  God  makes  possible  and  prepares  the 
way  for  normal  conduct  and  moral  freedom.  (Rom. 
8:4.)  Nor  is  this  yet  all.  The  indwelling  of  the  Spirit 
has  an  effect  also  upon  the  corporeal  nature  of  man.  The 
latter  experiences,  as  a  result  of  this  indwelling,  the 
quickening  influence  of  the  God  who  raised  up  Christ, 
i.e.,  made  Him  alive  again.  And,  finally,  the  whole 
Creation  of  God  secures,  in  connection  with  the  redemp- 
tion of  the  body  (not  from  the  body)  of  believers,  de- 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED        215 

liverance  from  the  impending  fate  of  dissolution. 

The  entire  Creation  of  God  is  a  self-consistent  organ- 
ism, in  all  its  parts  filled  with  the  life  of  God.  This  is 
the  sublime  Christian  view  of  the  universe,  based  upon 
the  Christian  faith  in  God — a  view  in  which  the  resur- 
rection of  the  flesh  appears,  not  as  an  alien  conception, 
but  as  an  important  and  necessary  element.  It  is  not 
the  case,  therefore,  that  the  confession  of  faith  in  the 
resurrection  of  the  flesh  can  be  surrendered  without  giv- 
ing up  anything  essential.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  just 
through  this  confession,  and  that  in  the  bluntly  plain 
formula  of  the  symbol,  "resurrection  of  the  flesh,"  that 
the  Biblical,  realistic  conception  of  the  universe,  opposed 
alike  to  the  materialistic  and  the  spiritualistic  conceptions, 
finds  distinct  recognition.  The  resurrection  of  the  flesh 
is,  therefore,  not  only  a  doctrine  which  was  of  great 
importance  at  one  time,  when  the  Church  was  strug- 
gling against  Dualistic  Gnosticism,  but  it  is  just  as  im- 
portant to-day  and  will  remain  so  for  all  time.  That 
there  is  room  in  the  discussion  of  it  for  the  question: 
How  can  these  things  be  ?  is  true  enough.  But  to  the  scep- 
ticism which  is  based  upon  our  inability  to  imagine  how  it 
can  be  effected,  Jesus  long  ago  gave  the  response  which  is 
as  timely  to-day :  "Ye  know  not  the  power  of  God." 

"And  I  believe  a  life  everlasting."  The  most  ancient 
Roman  symbol  to  which  we  have  access  closes  with 
"the  resurrection  of  the  flesh."  The  article  confessing 
belief  in  a  life  everlasting  was  added  at  a  later  day.  From 
our  discussion  of  the  resurrection,  it  is  evident  that  noth- 
ing essentially  new  was  thus  introduced.  It  may  be  truth- 
fully said,  that  it  is  a  natural  development  of  the  ancient 
symbol,  that  it  does  not  alter  the  character  of  the  latter.* 


*Harnack  in  Hauck,  Realencyclopsedia  I.,  755. 


216   THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED 

It  follows,  that  every  pantheistic  or  spiritualistic  attempt 
to  volatilize  the  conception  of  eternal  life  is  a  departure 
from  the  sense  of  the  concluding  words  of  the  Creed. 

We  believe  in  eternal  life,  also,  because  we  believe  in 
the  God  who  in  free  love  reveals  Himself  as  the  Three  in 
One,  and  not  because  we  are  able  to  prove  that  the  human 
Ego  is  indestructible.  Much  less  do  we,  in  proud  self- 
estimate  and  in  defiance  of  God,  make  claim  to  immor- 
tality. With  humble  gratitude  we  praise  the  love  of  God, 
which,  because  it  is  holy  love  and  faithfulness,  does  not 
finally  absorb  us  into  itself,  but  preserves  us  in  our  God- 
given  individuality,  and  ever  leads  us  on  to  the  realiza- 
tion of  our  personal  being.  We  know  full  well  that  the 
mere  continuance  of  the  individuality  of  the  man  of 
God,  assured  by  the  love  of  God,  does  not  bring  into 
view  the  real,  full  meaning  of  eternal  life.  The  latter  re- 
ceives its  full  content  of  meaning  ever  anew  from  God 
upon  the  ground  of  the  renewed  communion  with  Him, 
in  which  we  found  also  the  true  basis  of  the  resurrection 
of  the  flesh.  Attempts  to  portray  the  "How"  of  the  glori- 
fied state  for  the  gratification  of  pious  curiosity  are, 
therefore,  aside  from  the  true  interests  of  the  faith.  The 
Creed  is  here  marked  by  the  same  modest  reticence  as 
the  New  Testament.  We  will  be  with  the  Father ;  we 
will  be  with  Christ.  This  is  enough  to  satisfy  our  faith. 
Perhaps  the  eternal  life  to  which  we  look  forward  may 
be  most  easily  pictured  to  our  minds  with  the  help  of  a 
saying  of  Paul,  which  is  not  often  thus  applied,  i.e.,  "Now 
abideth  faith,  hope,  love."  Faith  abides,  i.e.,  the  life- 
union  in  which  the  believer  now  and  here  already  stands 
with  God — and  which  upon  the  part  of  God  consists  in 
gracious  giving,  upon  the  part  of  man,  in  grateful  receiv- 
ing— will,  freed  from  all  bounds  and  limitations,  continue 
forever.  This  is  a  more  lively  conception  of  the  life  to 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  CREED   217 

come  than  the  familiar  idea  of  beholding  God.  The  be- 
holding of  God  will  certainly  be  an  experience  in  eternal 
life,  but  we  shall  behold  Him  as  those  who  are  "of  Him, 
through  Him,  and  to  Him."  Hope  abides,  i.e.,  from  God, 
who  is  inexhaustibly  rich,  there  pours  upon  the  man  of 
God  whose  heart  is  open  to  receive  Him  ever  new  and 
ever  more  enrapturing  life,  and  he  reaches  out  for  it  with 
a  longing  that  is  unquenchable.  There  is  here  no  ground 
to  fear  a  "tedious  heaven,"  and  no  room  for  the  idea 
of  a  mere  prolonging  of  existence.  And  love  abides. 
Filled  with  divine  life  and  by  it  endowed  with  the  capac- 
ity for  loving  and  giving,  the  glorified  saints  live  together 
in  a  blessed  exchange  of  giving  and  receiving.  Thus 
eternal  life  loses  the  unattractive  pallor  which  has  been 
given  it  by  many  attempts  to  delineate  it,  and,  as  it  is  seen 
to  be  the  completion  of  a  life  which  is  here  already  rooted 
in  God,  it  becomes  evident  that  the  Christian  believer's 
profession  of  faith  in  eternal  life  is  not  an  empty  guess, 
not  a  presumptuous  demand,  but  a  genuine  faith. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


Form  L9-32m-8,'57(.C8680s4)444 


EL. 


993    The  truth  of  the 
Llljt   Apostles1  Creed 


DC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACIL 


A     000  602  386     5 


BT 

993 
LUit 


